Shadow and Bone season 2 will adapt multiple Grishaverse books — and maybe not the ones you think
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The debut of Shadow and Bone, the Netflix series adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's popular Grishaverse fantasy books, gave dedicated fans the unexpected. Not only did season 1 adapt events from the first novel in Bardugo's main trilogy and pieces from Six of Crows, a book from a separate duology set within the same world, but the show remixed the source materials in new ways so that both sets of characters would interact for the first time on either screen or page. Shadow and Bone will now continue those remixing twists with the next batch of eight episodes.
Showrunners Eric Heisserer and Daegan Fryklind initially played coy while on the subject of which Grishaverse books from Bardugo's repertoire they are adapting. "Multiple books for sure," Heisserer tells EW in an interview. "We touch on a few others in Leigh's catalog. There's a piece that's integral to the story that was Daegan's idea that I'm particularly excited about. I don't think the fans are gonna see that one coming 'cause it's a pretty deep cut."
"I don't even think that Leigh saw it coming," Fryklind adds of pitching that mystery idea to the author.
Of those books they are adapting, EW was able to confirm that season 2, premiering on Netflix March 16, 2023, will not only cover Siege and Storm, the novel that directly follows Shadow and Bone, but it will also cover events from Ruin and Rising, the finale to Bardugo's trilogy.
Fans should additionally expect more elements from the Six of Crows duology in season 2, as evidenced by the presence of Wylan Hendriks, a bomb-happy demolitions expert played by actor Jack Wolfe — though not necessarily in the ways you might expect.
Dávid Lukács/Netflix Mal (Archie Renaux) and Alina (Jessie Mei Li) hold hands in a scene from 'Shadow and Bone' season 2.
Heisserer and Fryklind promise they will follow the trail of breadcrumbs laid at the end of season 1, which brought the main characters together on the same ship, though their paths diverged. Sun Summoner Alina (Jessie Mei Li) left with tracker Mal (Archie Renaux) across the True Sea, while Crows leader Kaz (Freddy Carter), knife-slinger Inej (Amita Suman), and pistol prodigy Jesper (Kit Young) were busy crafting a plan to get them out of their troubles back home in Ketterdam.
Fryklind teases that she's nervous for Alina and Mal in season 2. The pair are on the run after faking Alina's death. They hope to use their anonymity to quietly make Alina powerful enough to finally tear down the Fold — the treacherous expanse of shadowy terrain created by the Darkling, General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), that has divided the country of Ravka for decades.
EW's exclusive photos from Shadow and Bone season 2 see Mal and Alina holding hands, lost in the throes of their blossoming romance within a land beyond Ravka called Novyi Zem. "They're certainly not in the same place as they were in season 1," Heisserer remarks. "They've made some pretty big decisions together that they soon discover means they're all or nothing, and that puts a lot of stress on each other. I, too, am worried for them."
The couple's main pressure is Kirigan, who survived the battle in the Fold. You could say he thrived there, despite scars that now adorn his face left by the volcra, the winged monstrosities that dwell within the Fold. Kirigan now has a new trick viewers glimpsed in the very last scene of season 1: He can conjure "nichevo'ya," creatures made of shadow. "There's a lot more for them to do. Therefore, there are new facets to animate there," Heisserer says of those terrors.
Alina and Mal's journey will lead them to Nikolai Lantsov (Patrick Gibson), a privateer first introduced in Bardugo's Siege and Storm with two distinct sides, the diplomatic Nikolai and his more charismatic Sturmhond persona. He commands a crew that includes Heartrender twins Tamar Kir-Bataar (Anna Leong Brophy) and Tolya Yul-Bataar (Lewis Tan). "These three characters are able to embrace [Alina and Mal] and guide them in a way," Fryklind notes.
Dávid Lukács/Netflix Crows gunslinger Jesper (Kit Young) meets with demolitions expert Wylan (Jack Wolfe) in 'Shadow and Bone' season 2.
By comparison, the Crows arc on the show will always, in some way, feel like an Ocean's 11 heist plot, the showrunners say.
Even though Wylan, a character pulled directly from Six of Crows, will be a prominent figure, Heisserer wants to clarify, "We aren't actually using the plot of Six of Crows in season 2." He says, "That is a beefy and robust story that requires its own lane." There will be "definite nods to the Crows storylines in those books" with season 2, but Heisserer notes for book readers that they are saving the Ice Court job, the main plot of Six of Crows, for another season. "We have a bigger ambition for it," he mentions.
Instead, you need to look at the scene on the ship in the season 1 finale to know where season 2 is taking these warm-hearted criminals. Kaz tells his cohorts in that sequence that he has a plan to save themselves from Pekka Rollins, the guy they screwed over to land the Sun Summoner kidnapping job, and the merchant Dreesen, who hired them for that job they didn't fulfill. Their first step, Kaz says, is finding a Heartrender.
Nina (Danielle Galligan), the Grisha also aboard their ship after getting her Fjerdan hunk Matthias (Calahan Skogman) jailed for his own protection, becomes that Heartrender.
The plan, it seems, also requires Wylan, who's seen in another EW exclusive photo from the season. "I love that he is so good with chemicals and with music," Heisserer says. "And he is also so pure. You wouldn't expect some of these things to be within the same character, yet they do coexist. He is highly observant of human behavior. He's the kind of crew member who is fully committed to his role and to being a part of the team."
Expect Nina and Wylan to disrupt the dynamic among the Crows. They "don't understand the unspoken rules" or the "things that the three don't talk about in season 1," Heisserer points out. The newcomers will poke at those touchy subjects a bit and, the showrunner says, "are gonna blow that up" — separate from Wylan's bombs.
Alina's arc and the Crows' arc were the two distinct sides of the story in Shadow and Bone season 1. Fryklind confirms there will be "multiple storylines" running at the same time through season 2, some of which may intersect in ways that are not noted in Bardugo's books.
Heisserer and Fryklind acknowledge they are being intentionally vague on the subject. "It was one of the first things that we talked about when we got back together to start building season 2: how can we recreate the fun that we had that way," he says of weaving together once-disconnected stories.
Fryklind adds, "It's harder than it seems."
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