Netflix remove ‘Arcane’ poster due to the use of AI
A poster for the animated series Arcane: League of Legends has been removed from Netflix after a fan suggested that artificial intelligence may have been used to extend the image.
Arcane is one of many strands of the League of Legends video game franchise, created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee for Netflix. The series follows two existing characters from the League of Legends world, Vi and Jinx, played by Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell, respectively. Katie Leung, Harry Lloyd and Kevin Alejandro also lend their voices to the series.
Season one of Arcane aired in the autumn of 2021 before leaving fans waiting for a new season for three years. Earlier this month, the second and final season of the show hit Netflix, with nine episodes spread across three weeks.
The new season reached the number two spot on Netflix’s list of the most popular series on the platform last week, only losing out to the widely viewed fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson.
While watching the new instalment of the animated series, one fan noticed that a character’s hand looked slightly off in a banner for the show. They shared a post on X about their observation, suggesting that AI may have been used to extend the image and gain the attention of Riot Games brand manager Alex Shahmiri.
Shahmiri responded to the fan on X. “Appreciate you bringing this to our attention,” he began, before declaring the company’s opposition to the use of AI, particularly on this series. “We have a strict stance of no AI for anything related to Arcane,” he shared, “’cause it’s disrespectful to the incredible artists who worked on the show.”
He then suggested that the seemingly AI-generated image was a “mistake,” acknowledging that it has now been removed from the platform and thanking the fan once more for pointing it out.
In other Arcane news, creator Linke recently spoke about why they made the decision to end the beloved show after just two seasons. During a chat with CinemaBlend, he acknowledged that the series was created with a “specific story in mind,” that they didn’t want to drag out.
“Look, you could have stretched it, I’m sure,” he admitted, “But for us, it was always just like we started with this in mind.” Rather than extending the series over more seasons without any real cause, Linke wanted to do the story “justice” by bringing it to an end.