Even Dota’s animated shows operate on Valve time…
Dota: Dragon’s Blood Book II, the second series of the Dota 2-inspired animated Netflix show has been delayed by almost two weeks. The news was quietly released by Netflix, who unceremoniously changed the release date on the Official Page, but didn’t announce it anywhere.
Book II was originally scheduled to release on Thursday, January 6th. But the page now reads January 18th, meaning the release was pushed back for two weeks for unknown reasons.
What's going on?
There are a few reasons why Dota: Dragon’s Blood could have been delayed. One theory is scheduling. Netflix has a truly ridiculous number of series and movies hitting the platform in the first week of January. And many of these releases overlap with the target audience of Dota: Dragon’s Blood.
Alternatively, there’s simply some shuffling of the seasons going on. One comment in February 2021 from editor Robert Burnette suggested that he was working on 24 episodes of the show. With eight episodes a season, that would suggest three full seasons.
But with the recent success of League of Legends’ Arcane, and a desire to capitalize on the lesser (but still significant) success of Dragon’s Blood, the format could be shifted to either one longer second season, or multiple shorter ones. Netflix measures success by hours viewed, with its top shows such as Squid Game, Bridgerton, and Money Heist all reaching into the hundreds of millions of hours watched. But it also divides viewing hours by season. So multiple seasons could inflate the potential success of the Dota animated show.
Whatever the reason, there’s still the wait, even if it is just a few weeks. Dota: Dragon’s Blood quickly capitalized on its success, by turning one of the show's most popular characters into a Hero. If they can continue this trend, then the second season and beyond will definitely strike gold again.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.