Will There Be a ‘Shadow and Bone’ Season 2?
Thank the Saints! Shadow and Bone has been renewed for a second season. pic.twitter.com/vH9rdTtkcq
— Shadow And Bone (@shadowandbone_) June 7, 2021
Netflix officially renewed Shadow and Bone in June as a part of its Geeked Week event in June of 2021. The renewal was expected, but it still had fans breathing a sigh of relief. The site What’s on Netflix reported as early as April that the show had already been secretly renewed. WoN has been correct with these kinds of stories before, and it cited a source inside of Netflix for this little tidbit. Still, some fans will not take the news seriously until Netflix makes a public announcement.
When Might Season 2 Premiere?
Netflix does not always divulge production details, especially on big and expensive projects like Shadow and Bone Season 2. It’s not clear if the show is in production yet, but both Bardugo and showrunner Eric Heisserer have hinted on social media that Season 2 will likely premiere in 2022. In addition to Bardugo’s Instagram post above, there was a Twitter thread where Heisserer said that he had already written the first drafts of Season 2 scripts.
Executive producer Shawn Levy seemed to confirm this when in a recent interview with Collider. He said: “Scripts written, heading into production shortly, in great shape, very much favorable to the characters in the world that we built and the Grishaverse that was put on screen in Season 1. But building out from there. Eric Heisserer still at the helm as creator, showrunner and getting kind of dangerously close to heading into production.”
What Will Season 2 Be About?
Shadow and Bone Season 1 essentially followed the storyline of the novel Shadow and Bone, with some new elements thrown in to include the characters from the Six of Crows duology. Presumably, Season 2 would work mostly with content from Siege and Storm, the second novel in the trilogy. Assuming it follows the book pretty closely, that means that Alina and her friends will quickly learn that Kirigan was not killed in the Shadow Fold, and that he is pursuing her with new and mysterious powers.
It’s less clear if the next season would delve into the events of Six of Crows. So far, the show has depicted the relationship between Nina Zenik and Matthias Helvar, which was only described in flashbacks in the books, but it has not touched the novel’s main events yet. Fans might begin to riot if another season goes by without the introduction of the beloved character Wylan.
Will There Be a ‘Six of Crows’ Spinoff?
Now that Kaz Brekker and his crew have been introduced in this original tie-in story, fans are clamoring to see their book adventure get the on-screen treatment. Some want to see them get their own spinoff show, and Bardugo herself touted the idea in an interview with Elle.
“I think we’re all forming a giant prayer circle,” the author said. “It really just depends on how audiences respond. Fantasy is expensive.” On the other hand, showrunner Eric Heisserer told the outlet: “I think at least part of next season should be a home game for our team,” meaning that the Crows would be back on their home turf in Ketterdam. If that’s the case, there might be more original stories coming their way.
Will There Be a ‘King of Scars’ Spinoff?
Now that I have successfully binged #ShadowAndBone twice this weekend, it’s time to get back to reading #kingofscars. pic.twitter.com/NLyzFdTNsC
— Kaila Wills It (@LibroCurious) April 26, 2021
Since completing the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology, Bardugo has written two more novels in the Grishaverse — King of Scars and Rule of Wolves. These follow Nikolai Lantsov, a character that hasn’t even been introduced in the show yet on adventures that come much farther down the timeline, but Bardugo told Elle that she is still hopeful the TV show will get to that point — either in the main series or in a spinoff.
“I want to see the whole story, and I know that’s crazy. I know it’s unlikely,” she said. “And I don’t think it would take seven seasons to get us through seven books. I would love to see the whole story unspool. I think that would be something special.”
“Nikolai Lantsov is probably one of my all-time favorite characters to write, enough so that I gave him his own duology,” she continued. “I think he would be hell to cast, but I would absolutely love to see him brought to the screen. He is kind of a character, and I think he would be a lot of fun.”
Heisserer echoed this hope in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, pointing out that Netflix agreed to secure the rights to one of Bardugo’s short story collections set in the Grishaverse. This seems like a good sign that the streaming service would seek a big payout on its investment.
Which Characters Would Return?
Shadow and Bone Season 1 did a great job of making the Grishaverse seem real and expansive, and fans might be surprised at how many side characters have big roles to play going forward. Those who haven’t read the books will want to keep an eye on the Squaller Zoya, and the Materialki David as well. They may also want to keep in mind the ominous performance of Dean Lennox Kelly as Pekka Rollins.
Cast Commentary
Finally, it’s worth noting that the cast is extremely hopeful for a second season. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Archie Renaux said: “I’m fairly confident. I would love nothing more than for it to get back a green light for a second season, but we’ve just got to wait… I mean, the dream scenario would be that we find out now, but I don’t know if that’s how Netflix works. We’ll have to wait and see.”
As for Jessie Mei Li, she told Elle that she is dying to see her character Alina take on the challenges coming her way in the books. She said: “Because Kirigan’s got his shadow soldiers, and then obviously Alina gets her own army, I’d love to see how that manifests and how that affects her. Alina’s hair is meant to turn white. I’d be interested to see how gruesome that is. Maybe it will take much more of a darker tone — that’d be quite cool to explore. In my head when I read the books, I imagined Alina’s hair to turn gray, actually — not in a beautiful, flowing way, like in an ill way.”
‘A Dare’
If you’ve finished Shadow and Bone Season 1, you know that the series ends on a surprising cliffhanger for a show that was guaranteed another season. Heisserer told Variety this week that this was by design. With a laugh, he said: “It was me daring Netflix not to renew us.” Hopefully, Netflix doesn’t take this dare.