Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ Creator Has a ‘Plan’ for Season 2
The debut season of Shadow and Bone left fans with an epic cliffhanger. The Netflix series has yet to be renewed. But the good news is the show’s creator, author Leigh Bardugo, says she’s already mapped out a second season.
Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ is based on Leigh Bardugo’s books
Shadow and Bone is an adaptation of Bardugo’s best-selling Grishaverse series. The first set of books is a trilogy, which includes Shadow and Bone (2012), Siege and Storm (2013), and Ruin and Rising (2014).
Bardugo’s later novels — Six of Crows (2015), Crooked Kingdom (2016), King of Scars (2019), and Rule of Wolves (2021) — feature different characters but are set in the same fictional world.
However, the Netflix series isn’t based on the events of one book. It combines various elements from Bardugo’s stories — something the author was entirely on board with. She served as an executive producer and worked closely with screenwriter/showrunner Eric Heisserer to develop the first season.
Leigh Bardugo wanted to leave fans with a cliffhanger
In a recent interview with Collider, Bardugo talked about the nail-biting cliffhanger in Shadow and Bone season finale. And she admitted that much like her books, the show was written that way by design.
“We want people to understand what will be coming if we get the opportunity to go there and that this antagonist is not done for, in fact, that he may return even stronger and more dangerous than before,” Bardugo said when talking about General Kirigan’s (Ben Barnes) survival and a potential season 2. “I didn’t want them to tie the season up in a bow.”
“I’ve left every book on a cliffhanger because I’m not stupid,” she continued. “So, I love a good cliffhanger. I hate them as readers, but as an author, I want you to demand the rest. I want you to be hungry for it, and I think it was a very smart move by Eric and his team.”
The author also noted that while the final scenes left fans with burning questions, they also serve as an excellent tease for season 2. “Well, we have to be cruel in order to get you to race to the internet and demand that Netflix bring us a second season!” Bardugo suggested.
She says ‘Shadow and Bone’ season 2 would dip in ‘Six of Crows’
If Shadow and Bone is renewed for season 2, it will likely dip into some of the events of Bardugo’s fourth book, Six of Crows. Season 1 introduced several characters from the novel, including the Heartrender Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) and her Grisha hunter captor, Matthias (Calahan Skogman). And Bardugo says a potential second season would continue to tell their story.
“The Nina and Matthias scenes are actually some of the only scenes that come directly out of Six of Crows,” the author told Collider. “Nina and Matthias’ stories are woven into those books, and how they met, and where that led. So, of course, we don’t know if we’ll get a second season, but we certainly have a plan, and we wanted to lay the foundation for that plan early on.”
