VIDEO. “Arcane” is a hit on Netflix: what role did Montpellier play in the series ?

Created between Paris, Montpellier and Las Palmas, the series "Arcane" is breaking records. The story of a success story from the animation studio Fortiche.

“Jinx”, the main character of the series “Arcane”, who goes from one setback to another throughout the episodes, has not brought bad luck (the translation of this first name in French) to the animation studio Fortiche. Quite the contrary. This Franco-American animated series, inspired by the world of the video game “League of Legends”, whose season 2 is currently broadcast on Netflix, is the most watched English-language series on this platform, one of the most awarded too, and even the most awarded in the animation category. Not to mention the performances on Youtube with more than 2 billion views.

From Paris to Montpellier and Las Palmas

Behind this phenomenal success is the animation studio Fortiche. Created in Paris in 2009, it has since opened two other studios, one in Montpellier, the other in Las Palmas, in the Canaries because “the project for this series turned out to be more colossal than expected. We therefore needed to expand our talent pool“, says Hervé Dupont, CEO of the animation studio Fortiche.

A flashback. It all started in 2013, when the company Riot Games, behind the video game “League of Legends”, wanted a video for the launch of the character “Jinx”. Fortiche made it. The video was a hit. The studio made another one the following year. Same old story. This one went viral on YouTube. “Building on these successes, Christian Linke convinced Riot Games management to make an animated series with us based on “League of Legends”. This is how the story of Arcane began after the production of a first pilot in 2016, then that of the two seasons that followed“, continues Hervé Dupont.

It was during the first season, in 2018, that Fortiche realized that it would need reinforcements in terms of animation to successfully complete the creation of the series. This is where Fortiche's animation supervisor, Alexis Wanneroy, came in, having just moved to Montpellier after returning from Los Angeles where he worked for over a decade for Dreamworks.

Between the pool of talent trained at the École supérieure des métiers artistiques (ESMA), the Montpellier dynamic around the cultural and creative industries, and the enthusiastic support of the Métropole to welcome this flagship of French animation to its territory, Fortiche did not hesitate for long to create a studio in Montpellier, then another one, this time in the Canaries. In total, more than 700 people will be mobilized for this project that will have lasted seven years.

An incredible adventure

For Antoine Tomasi, a 2021 ESMA graduate who joined this project as a 3D animator in September 2023, “working in a studio that maintains such high standards and following so many wonderful artists is a gift“.

His mission consisted of animating several characters, including Jinx, Caitlyn, Viktor and VI. “The most complex thing was finding the perfect emotion for each one. It was quite a challenge, but this requirement achieved, the complexity of the characters and a very rhythmic scenario are at the origin of the success of this series with the public. For us, it is a great pride, because this studio shines the skills of the French in the world, even if foreigners also participated“, he concludes.

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