Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone follows Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) as she discovers powers she didn't know existed and learns that she might be the key to reuniting the ...

Alina and Mal set off together, with Alina hoping to learn how to control her powers with the amplifier so that she can take down the Fold on her own. Alina offers the Crows some of the jewels she was forced to wear, hoping to buy their silence and loyalty, and they agree to keep her plans secret. Mal successfully finds the Stag, and offers the information to Kirigan in exchange for letting him talk to Alina. Once Kirigan and Alina reach East Ravka’s army base at the edge of the Fold, he recruits Durast David Kostyk (Luke Pasqualino) to fabricate the stag’s antlers into amplifiers for him and Alina. Baghra knows that her son doesn’t really want to help Alina destroy the Fold, and that he wants to instead use her abilities to make himself and the Fold more powerful. General Kirigan arrives just in time to save her, and personally escorts her for the remainder of the journey. In the years since, it’s been foretold that a Grisha with the ability to summon the power of the sun would appear to take down The Fold and bring peace to the land. Things go wrong, however, when Arken betrays them and tries to kill Alina for the ruler of West Ravka. While Mal recovers from his wounds, Alina is whisked to the tent of Second Army leader General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), a Grisha who is thought to be a descendant of the Darkling, to test her power. Once Inej is freed, the three meet The Conductor, Arken (Howard Charles), and prepare to cross the Fold in his unique coal-powered vehicle. As Mal is about to be carried off in the winged creature’s talons, Alina begins to glow, unleashing a force of light only told of in legends. [Shadow and Bone](https://www.denofgeek.com/shadow-and-bone/) is set in a world where a shadowy vale full of monsters known as The Fold divides the land.

Leigh Bardugo's Shadow & Bone is one of the biggest and most beloved fantasy book series out there, and when a screen adaptation was finally announced to be ...

The Darkling is definitely the true name and identity of the character in books — in fact, he is not known by any other in Ravka. In the show, though, it is almost as if he is disguised to come off as more likable and approachable in the earliest episodes. While book Mal (Archie Renaux) is far from a fan favorite, many people seemed to really like him in the show. [played by Ben Barnes](http://collider.com/ben-barnes-movies-tv-shows-before-shadow-and-bones-season-2-rotten-tomatoes/)) in the show, but this is not exactly what happens in the books; instead, he catches her off-guard and kisses her first. Meanwhile, in the books, the manipulative character chooses to do so out of ambition and desire for power. The reasoning behind Alina's scar on her hand may not be the biggest difference in the show, but it is nonetheless worth mentioning. It conveys the message of this, what is a very brutal and dominating act." Seemingly, these changes were made in order to give Alina more control over the narrative and send out an important message to younger folks in the audience. In the books, the character isn't described as half Shu — an ancient nation in the south of Ravka influenced by China and Mongolia, which Ravka sees as the enemy for their inhumane treatment of Grisha. Shadow & Bone is followed by Seige & Storm and Ruin & Rising, in which neither of the characters appears. Instead, these beloved personalities are only introduced to readers in the first book of the Six of Crows duology. While the fan-favorite gang of criminals is only introduced later in the book series, they step on-screen very early during the series in what feels like a prequel that tackles the Six of Crow's origins.

The Shadow and Bone plot follows Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a Grisha (a.k.a. person who can do magic) who can summon light, also known as a "Sun Summoner." ...

[Emily Burack](https://www.emilyburack.com/) (she/her) is the news writer for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at [Hey Alma](https://www.heyalma.com/), a Jewish culture site. Thanks to Alina's powers, the ship reaches safety outside of the Fold, and Alina, Mal, Kaz, Inej, and Jasper convene in a field, where Inej swears her loyalty to Alina and Kaz promises not to reveal her identity. Nina is taken captive by Düskelle, or witch-hunters, from Fjerda, but when their ship sinks, she is abandoned with one of the Drüskelle, Matthias (Calahan Skogman). The Crows are hired to kidnap Alina, which does not happen in the books—it's a new plot that allows the Crows characters to overlap with Alina and her story. At first, she works with General Aleksander Kirigan (Ben Barnes), the general of the Second Army, which consists entirely of Grishas.

The crows are just getting started, lbr! By Leah Marilla Thomas Published: Mar 16, 2023. Save Article.

The first season dropped in April of 2021, and now we're getting the second season in March 2023. So there are plenty of ways for the story to continue. So, the first two seasons more or less cover the events of the three Shadow & Bone books. There are the two Six of Crow books. [Shadow and Bone season 2](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a36191336/shadow-and-bone-season-2-news-date-cast-spoilers/) and eager to know if the show is returning for another season. If you're like me, Shadow and Bone is one of those shows that you absolutely tear through the second it hits Netflix.

Will there be a season 3 of Shadow and Bone? Netflix's Grishaverse series season 2 is out, and while it hasn't been renewed yet, we do know a few things ...

The Crows themselves are already fan-favorite characters, and now it seems at least some of them will be embarking with Mal on some Here’s everything we know about Shadow and Bone season 3 so far. If we’re judging by the first and second seasons, then we’re probably looking at a two-year gap between seasons. While season 2 is already packed with action and [bursting at the seams](https://www.polygon.com/e/22170223) with plot, that doesn’t mean there [isn’t room for a third season](https://www.polygon.com/e/23405828) — as long as Netflix gives it the green light, that is. [Shadow and Bone](https://www.polygon.com/22394023/shadow-and-bone-review-netflix), but that’s not particularly surprising. They’re amazing human beings, like Jessie just brings a brightness to the set every time she shows up.”

Based on the best-selling books by Leigh Bardugo, it follows the young Alina Starkov, who after years of toiling away as a soldier, finds out that she's not ...

Alina and Mal approach him to help her take down the Fold in her fight against the Darkling. [Amita Suman](https://collider.com/shadow-and-bone-netflix-kaz-inej-relationship-freddy-carter-amita-suman-kit-young-interview/) can also be seen in The Outpost and Netflix's The Sandman. Tamar is the other half of the mercenary twins and a Heartrender like her brother, but she's far more inclined to use her abilities than her combat-oriented brother. She poisons the King of Ravka in order to not only further the Grisha cause but exact her revenge after enduring years of abuse at the hands of the King and Queen. He's instrumental in smuggling Alina Starkov from the Little Palace and the fight for her freedom against the revenge-consumed Darkling. At the end of the first season, he decides to help Alina Starkov in her fight against the Darkling. In the first season, he crosses the Fold with his band of thieves to capture the Sun Summoner for a big payout. Barnes can be seen on HBO's Westworld, Netflix's The Punisher and is widely known for his breakout role as the titular Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. And of course, the series is adding more characters to the large ensemble and adapting more events from the Grishaverse novels. A gang of thieves from across the fold called The Crows aim to capture her for a handsome price, and her connection to The Darkling might not be what it seems. Separating her from her best friend Mal, the army commander General Kirigan, the most powerful of all Grisha, takes Alina to the Little Palace to train her and present her to the nation. [Shadow and Bone](https://collider.com/tag/shadow-and-bone/) returns to the small screen on March 16, 2023, two years after the smash hit success of the first season.

It's time for the Ice Court Heist, the King of Scars, and a certain someone's resurrection. Ben Barnes as The Darkling and Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov in ...

The King of Scars/Rule of Wolves duology covers Nikolai's time on the throne as he tries to balance the political intrigue of healing Ravka by day and transforming into a flesh-craving beast at night. Bardugo's world is brutal, beautiful, and mesmerizing enough that little needs altering from here, especially since Six of Crows is the definitive fan favorite. Shadow and Bone has Nikolai stabbed by one of the shadow monsters in Episode 7, presumably the cause of his future change, whereas Bardugo's vengeful Darkling poisons Nikolai with merzost. Nikolai seeing a nichevo'ya in the mirror in Episode 8 foreshadows his nightly transformations into a nichevo'ya-like monster with wings, claws, and an unrelenting hunger for human flesh. Many revelations about the Crows were already disclosed in Season 2, but there's plenty of material to mine thanks to [Bardugo's flawless character building](http://collider.com/shadow-and-bone-kaz-brekker-intelligence-strength/) and the Crows' interconnective relationships. After such a large divergence from the books, predicting Alina's future is something of a crap shoot. A masterfully intense thrill ride with brain-melting surprises, ruthless stakes, and immaculate characterization, the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology is [widely considered the author's best work](https://collider.com/shadow-and-bone-books-six-of-crows-ranked/#six-of-crows) prior to her adult novels Ninth House and Hell Bent. [result in a rushed, less coherent,](https://collider.com/shadow-and-bone-season-2-review/) and less effective story compared to Season 1. [Shadow and Bone](https://collider.com/tag/shadow-and-bone/) delivered a whirlwind of adventure, romance, and heartbreak, not to mention shocks aplenty. This concept forms the basis of the Six of Crows novel. Along the way they'll free Nina Zenik's (Danielle Galligan) lover Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman) from Hellgate prison, hence the Six of Crows title.

The second season of Netflix's Shadow and Bone packs in a ton of twists and dramatic moments. We try to break down what it all means.

Could a spin-off be in the works that might allow more space for the stories of Kaz and his crew? Nina Zenik’s sole mission in Shadow and Bone Season 2 is to figure out a way to get her lover Matthias Helvar out of the Kerch prison known as Hellgate. And while the Season 2 finale did introduce the drug jurda parem that plays such a key role in the Six of Crows books, it does so in a way that feels as though it may be a problem that Alina and Nikolai are meant to solve. As Season 2 concludes, Alina not only prepares to stand next to Nikolai at his coronation—the two are still fake engaged—but to stay in Os Alta to help him rebuild a divided Ravka. Nina makes deals with everyone from Kaz to Nikolai in the hopes of helping the man she loves, but when she finally secures a royal pardon, it turns out to be too late. He removes his shirt to reveal shadows spreading across his back from the site of the injury, and when he looks in the mirror, he sees a nichevo’ya as his reflection. As Nikolai prepares for his coronation, it’s clear that not everything is as rosy as it appears in the newly reunited Kingdom of Ravka. Alina finally manages to perform a light-based version of the Darkling’s favorite magical attack—known as the Cut—and deal a damaging blow to her former mentor/potential love interest when he tries to kill Mal and claim his Firebird power for himself. It’s Nikolai, for clearly self-interested reasons since he is also clearly crushing on Alina himself, who offers Mal a solution—take on his former fake identity of the famous privateer Sturmhond, which will allow him to serve Ravka, see the world, and maybe get some perspective on what he wants out of his second chance at life along the way. (In Bardugo’s novels, the two retire to a quiet life of anonymity and open an orphanage together.) (Morozova resurrected the girl in the same way he did the Stag and the Sea Whip, after Baghra lost control of her powers and killed her as a child.) That bloodline, she says, has passed to Mal—it’s the reason he’s always been able to track animals so well and to always find his way back to Alina. Though the Sun Summoner tracks down and slays the Sea Whip within Season 2’s first two episodes, her search for the third creature takes much longer—or, at least it does until the Darkling’s mother Baghra informs her that the Firebird isn’t an animal so much as a bloodline, passed down through the offspring of Morozova’s children.

Allowing fans to see both the world-saving mission of Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) in the Grisha trilogy as well as the scrappy adventures of the thieving ...

Having them show up for the finale is cool, and It's exciting to see everyone all together, but you can’t help but notice how out of place the Crows feel among the ranks of Alina and Nikolai’s people. At the end of the day, this has been Alina’s story and the Crows are just circling around it and being handed boons to keep them relevant, so they can continue to delight audiences. With the Crows' fight in Ketterdam finished halfway through the season, they needed a way to keep the characters relevant and get them involved with the main plot. This is fitting going up against the Darkling, but this diversion keeps them busy all the way until the finale where finally Inej can come in with the blade and save Alina’s life a few times. Matthias’ (Calahan Skogman) imprisonment takes place before Six Of Crows even begins, and the Crows are hoping to break him out not just because they made a deal with This extends to other couples as well with the choice to keep Matthias in Hellgate most of the season showcasing the lowest part of his relationship with Nina, something we only hear discussed afterward in the books. This isn’t to say the characters don’t feel like themselves or that the scenes we do get aren’t fun and interesting. What we see from them is a mix of events pulled from both books in their duology and [things created wholesale for this new version](https://collider.com/shadow-and-bone-season-2-book-changes/) of the story. We finally have all six crows (well, the sixth is in a cage) but what they’re allowed to do is still very much dictated by the plot of Shadow and Bone rather than their own narrative forces. It’s not glamorous, it’s not grand, and it leaves the Crows in Shadow and Bone feeling somewhat out of place. It’s [Alina on all the posters](https://collider.com/shadow-and-bone-season-2-images-jessie-mei-li/) at the end of the day.

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers from Season 2 of Shadow and Bone and also from the Nikolai Lanstov Duology by Leigh Bardugo.Shadow and Bone ...

We saw that when the group was fighting the shadow monsters in the chapel at the end of the season, Nikolai was attacked by one of them and his shoulder was pierced through. It seems like the show is leaving an open possibility there with The Darkling, and we will just have to wait and see if this is a hint at the future or merely an Easter egg! She is the patron saint of gardeners and was trapped in the Shadow Fold along with two other saints, Sankta Grigori and Sankta Juris. In King of Scars, Elizaveta steals the remains of The Darkling's body and preserves it in order to try and resurrect him. What was not surprising was the death of The Darkling (Ben Barnes), which occurred at the end of Ruin and Rising, the third and final book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy. The second season of Shadow and Bone ended with our heroes attending the funeral of General Kirigan aka The Darkling.

These liberties will come as no surprise to fans of Season 1, which combined the plots of Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy and her Six of Crows duology with ...

This is a show-only development for Mal, but there is precedent for a non-Nikolai Sturmhond in the books. In the show, Alina tells Zoya and Genya that the three of them can be their own Triumvirate, meaning she'll take over from David's spot in the books. Shadow and Bone once again reunites the Crows with Alina and friends, giving us a whole new plotline to enjoy. Key parts of the battle remain the same: Alina sacrifices Mal and destroys the Fold, then kills a bereaved Darkling. For the first half of Season 2, the Crows are fighting to regain their place in Ketterdam, since Pekka Rollins has taken over the old Crow Club and framed them for murder. There's a lot less actual touching and romance between the two in the show than the books, except for one show-only scene that sees Alina attempt to trick him with seduction — again, giving her more agency and power in the relationship. This way, Baghra is able to reveal that Mal is the third amplifier, a moment that hits harder in the show than in the books as it allows Mal to reckon with his ancestry and gives him the hard task of telling Alina the truth. In the show, he understands that it's important the two of them present a united front, and he ends up much friendlier with Nikolai. The books also see her reject his marriage proposal, while she accepts it in the show in an attempt to consolidate power and present a better path forward for Grisha in Ravka. The show pairs Mal and Alina with Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker) as they search for the Firebird instead of Zoya (Sujaya Dasgupta), Genya (Daisy Head), and David (Luke Pasqualino). She creates nichevo'ya creatures of her own and nearly kills herself and the Darkling in the process, but her allies help her escape before she can finish the job. In the show, Alina gains more agency by choosing to seek out the Sea Whip instead of getting kidnapped and being forced to do so on the Darkling's behalf.

Netflix phenomenon Shadow and Bone is back for season 2, and fans are already asking what's next for season 3 of this fantasy series.

[Entertainment Weekly ](https://ew.com/tv/shadow-and-bone-season-2-ending-expanded-grishaverse/)that while working on season two, he opened a separate writers’ room to develop a Six of Crows spinoff series. In the books, this is discovered towards the end of the final novel Ruin and Rising, alongside the death of the Darkling, Alina once again refuses Nikolai’s proposal and eventually returns to her hometown with Mal, where they rebuild the orphanage and school. However, when Shadow and Bone writer Christina Strain was asked about the Six of Crows’ spinoff, she, [tweeted](https://twitter.com/christinastrain/status/1571564669294477313?s=20&t=6SRloIHSWIeL2ZlJAKTMMw) “I seriously can not stress enough just how important it’ll be for people to watch Season 2 of Shadow and Bone.” Strain’s comments make sense after watching season two and seeing the arrival of Prince Nikolai (Patrick Gibson) also known as the sea captain Sturhmond, and Grisha fighters Tamar (Anna Leong Brophy) and Tolya (Lewis Tan). Each amplifier gets its own book in the series by Bardugo, as the first book focuses on the Stag, while books two and three center around the hunt for the Sea Whip and Firebird, respectively. However, it wasn’t plain sailing for the series from there, as showrunner Heisserer almost left the series when Netflix revealed they didn’t have the rights to Bardugo’s second series, Six of Crows. Heisserer got the gig as showrunner because his friend gave him a copy of Bardugo’s books and he loved them so much that he tweeted the author to tell her how much he enjoyed them. That tweet led to Netflix calling him: “it was a year later that I got a call out of the blue from Netflix and they said, ‘Hey, we know you tweeted the author a year ago.’ You know, so I got past like the Big Brother paranoia and Leigh just remembered that. The two series are part of a universe known as “the Grishaverse.” [Netflix](https://www.denofgeek.com/netflix/) show nowadays, they want to know whether the show will have another season or whether they’ll be stuck with another cliffhanger ending that will never be continued. Mapmaker and orphan Alina discovers she is one of the most powerful Grisha, a Sun Summoner, whose power has the potential to destroy the Fold and free her country. [have forgotten the premise since season one](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/shadow-and-bone-recap/), Shadow and Bone is Alina Starkov’s (Jessie Mei Li) story based on a book series of the same name by Leigh Bardugo.

"Shadow and Bone" season two is now on Netflix. The season finale teases several storylines for future seasons and a potential spinoff show.

"We did that a little bit with the prequel story for the Crows in season one," he said. Meanwhile, the "King of Scars" focuses on Nikolai and his allies after the war. In season two, Nina is working to get Matthias pardoned and out of the Ketterdam prison. Matthias refuses and instead tries to fight the guards that come in and is locked up again. [The "King of Scars" book is likely to be the main story adapted in season three](https://www.insider.com/tv-series-that-are-similar-to-shadow-and-bone). In season two, they return home and have to fight for their lives against a powerful crime boss, before going to Shu Han to retrieve a mythical sword from a powerful Grisha saint. In the season two finale, Nikolai prepares for his coronation after the war. In the book series, during the final fight with Kirigan, Alina actually gives her abilities to every normal person around her, creating a new crew of sun summoners. However, this time, Kirigan is dead and Alina seems stuck with the shadow abilities. Together, they seem to be taking down slave ships at the end of season two, Alina and Mal also discover that the third and final amplifier that Alina needs is actually her childhood friend. [his undefeatable shadow monsters, and his army of Grisha](https://www.insider.com/shadow-and-bone-season-two-leigh-bardugo-monster-child-cry-2022-10) against Alina and her underprepared and mostly human allies.

While in Season 1, the then-leader of Ravka's Grisha army was a respected and charismatic Shadow Summoner, Kirigan has done away with the facade for Season 2.

I think what I like about this show and this character is that there is a little bit of mystery left and a little bit of confusion in him. I think that we try as best we can to kind of sow that in still, but she has less conflict about him in the show. He’s forced into this position of just confronting her and literally putting his hand over her mouth and shoving her up against the wall and silencing her and saying,’It will be this way.’ I think because we built up through the first season, this lovely friendship that we have, and we played these other elements of the characters, it was nice to explore the ones that we hadn’t. But yeah, we kind of fit our roles a bit better in the first season where I’m coming at this with 20 years of experience and Jessie’s fresher to this kind of experience. I think in the first season talking about it, I felt the compulsion to be like, ‘Well, there’s a world in which this works.’ Because that’s what he believes. So we don’t really get into a lot of that in this season, because it’s thick, and we’ve got stuff to get on with. But then the results of how that conflict play out and the more he sees what she’s capable of, and what she really is when she’s in the fold and how powerful she really is — that actually maybe there’s a way that she could do this. I think there’s one thing he has going for him, which is consistency, because in the first season he talks to her about how he’s lived all these lifetimes and he’s tried it other ways. So we have a little taste of it when the monsters attack his mother, and it sort of takes him by surprise. But in this season, it’s unleashed a little bit and he doesn’t have an army to rely on. But at the same time, he has to take ownership of this sort of villainy and his toxicity at this point. How was it to be able to tap into the much darker side of Kirigan for this season?

Shadow and Bone season 2 is full of new and returning characters. Here are the actors you can expect to see as well as where else you can find them.

His alchemy skills come in handy on numerous occasions, and his youthful energy is a welcome addition to the team. Tamar Kir-Bataar is the twin sister of Tolya and also a member of Sturmhond’s crew. Tamar is played by Anna Leong Brophy, who has also appeared in The Girl Before, Ragdoll, and Traces. Genya is played by Daisy Head, who you may recognize from The Sandman or her upcoming role in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Zoya and Alina may not be the best of friends, but Zoya at least realizes that Kirigan isn’t the saint everyone thinks he is and that Alina is probably their best chance at stopping him. A member of the Crows, Jesper Fahey is a skilled marksman and sharpshooter, though he’s also a bit impulsive and has a small gambling problem. She regrets the man that Kirigan has become, and will do anything to stop him. Zoya is a Grisha Squallor loyal to Kirigan and fiercely jealous of Alina’s closeness to him when they first meet. Jesper is played by Kit Young, who has also appeared in The Origin and The School for Good and Evil. Kaz is played by Freddy Carter, who has also appeared in Wonder Woman and Pennyworth. Kaz is the one who discovers Dreesen’s job in season 1 and convinces Inej and Jesper to come along with him. Even though they spend a lot of season 1 apart, he and Alina clearly mean a lot to each other, and he’s proven to be a loyal ally and friend even as their lives have drastically changed.

Shadow and Bone has only just returned to Netflix for its anticipated second season, but showrunners Eric Heisserer and Daegan Fryklind are already looking to ...

We are ready to launch that as its own story," Heisserer explained. "And it's weaving their story in with the King of Scars duology that we're already in love with, and what we think is going to come alive on screen from those. [Shadow and Bone's Ben Barnes teases how his character is different in season 2](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a43322242/shadow-and-bone-season-2-ben-barnes/) [Shadow and Bone season 2 twist ending explained](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a43334185/shadow-and-bone-season-2-twist-ending-explained/) [Shadow and Bone](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a36145305/shadow-and-bone-season-2-release-date-netflix/) season 2 spoilers follow. [season-two finale](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a43334185/shadow-and-bone-season-2-twist-ending-explained/) basically ended where Leigh Bardugo's original book trilogy does, with Alina destroying the Fold and the Darkling's death.

Season two of the fantasy series is littered with them: Secret identities, secret relatives, latent powers, plot twists, surprising emotional character turns, ...

And it’s awful and tragic, and the weight of that sacrifice allows Alina to harness enough power to finally Tear! She takes Mal and Alina to his workshop to look for info on the Firebird’s location and reveals that when she was younger, she used the Cut to kill her non-Grisha sister in a fit of rage and jealousy. While that’s troubling, what’s worse is the look on her face after she does it — she gives us a tiny little smile pointing to her enjoying how that level of power feels. (He’s got a real problem with destiny over choice.) Nikolai gives him the Sturmhond coat, the Sturmhond boat, and the Sturmhond name to go off and have adventures. They realize she’s a ridiculously powerful Durast Grisha, and she is literally using the metal in their blood to try and kill them. Okay, so, technically Mal is already dying, and technically he tells her to do it, and technically he also holds the knife she plunges into his chest, but she still kills him! Alina, Mal, and Nikolai task the Crows with tracking down the Neshyenyer, an ancient sword created by a Grisha Durast named Sankta Neyar to kill an “unkillable army,” believing this sword to be the only thing that can stop the Nichevo’ya. Good thing he’s actually kind of nice and up for a little amplifier hunting to bring down the Fold instead of just, you know, turning them over to the highest bidder. This information comes in handy once Alina fails to destroy the Fold with two amplifiers and the boat/plane crashes on Ravkan soil. Also, it allows him to say a supercool line in a supercool way: “The Barrel doesn’t belong to kings, it belongs to bastards.” Indeed! It’s for a good reason: The fact that Alina isn’t just having nightmares about Kirigan expanding the Fold in Ravka, but that he’s actually doing it (1) adds some urgency to Alina figuring out how to stop him and (2) sets up the fact that Alina and Kirigan are connected somehow, which is a huge theme throughout the season. Any Crow worth their weight knows the power of a well-deployed surprise, a flashy reveal, and a I-did-not-see-that-coming twist, and Shadow and Bone knows it too.

Alina's, Mal's, and the Darkling's stories in the Grishaverse books ended much differently than in Netflix's Shadow and Bone. Here is how it went down in ...

In the books, a lot of the tension between Mal and Alina came from romantic jealousy. It’s a far cry from what happens in the books, which tie up Alina and Mal’s story in the trilogy and emphasize the happiness of a quiet, subdued life. She never asked to be a saint and if she is still alive, she will be turned into a figurehead, put on a pedestal, and scrutinized for whatever she does. When Alina faces off against the Darkling, the dangerous move she uses fatally wounds Mal as well. As he dies, he asks that Alina not give him a grave so that no one will desecrate it, and then asks her to say his name one last time. Alina never explicitly says why she chooses this, but it’s pretty evident that she just wants this part of her life to be over. After tying up their loose ends (including burning a dead body that Genya fixed up to look like Alina), Mal and Alina return to the orphanage where they were raised, and go on to lead a quiet, ordinary, but full-of-love life together. With thousands of people now shooting light like disco balls, the Fold crumbles and the Darkling is really upset. Suddenly, everyone around her bursts into light, and Alina realizes that the final amplifier multiplies the Sun Summoner’s power by thousands — literally, it multiplies itself into thousands of people all around her. That means he is the only Grisha in the world with such immense powers. And she does, but unlike in the show, he’s not already dying when she does so. In order to cover all that ground, some plot points have been dropped, others skimmed over, and some reconfigured for screen.

The actress discusses the hit Netflix series' second season and how an ADHD diagnosis changed her life for the better.

So I was shocked about how oddly specific Shadow and Bone was in terms of the kind of thing I wanted to do at the time.” I never thought that would be a thing.” But her role as Starkov—and the show Shadow and Bone itself—has grown into far more than just a thing. “I just think I can do everything and I go into hyper mode, where I might be completely sleep deprived, but I will push and push and push. “If you’re neurodivergent and undiagnosed, you spend most of your time thinking, what on earth is going on?” she says. She was, to be honest, a bit pathetic at the start.” “I’d grown up loving fantasy—I watched Lord the Rings constantly—and I was like, hang on a minute,” Li tells me from the couch in her London flat, which she shares with roommates and a few cats. You’re never gonna be in a period drama’—I just thought that was reality, because I’m not full white,” Li, who is of Hong Kong Chinese and English descent, recalls. If you’re talking about wanting her to be a benevolent leader and have people follow her, she needed to have that inner sunlight. I thought that would be quite a nice quality to lend to Alina as well. When season one released in 2021, the show received massive attention from fans of the books who fell in love with Li and her costars’ magnetic energy and twisty, fantastical storyline. But the Shadow and Bone script, which was adapted from the YA fantasy novel of the same name by Leigh Bardugo, stood out from the rest. When the opportunity to play Alina Starkov, the powerful hero of the wildly popular Netflix series Shadow and Bone, came across the actress Jessie Mei Li’s desk, she was floored by the prescience of its arrival.

Mal taking over for Nikolai as Sturmhond was the big twist in Shadow and Bone season 2. Eric Heisserer, Patrick Gibson, and Jessie Mei Li share why the ...

[…] It’s so exciting to think of Mal as having his own trajectory, his own story, so that we see more of him outside of Alina, because he’s such a great character.” The twist is a complete break from the ending of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which saw Alina and Mal settle down in the countryside to enjoy their happily ever after. This is where the Netflix series makes its most drastic deviation from the books yet: Shadow and Bone season 2 ends with Nikolai ascending to the throne, yes, but also finds him passing off the Sturmhond identity entirely to Archie Renaux’s Mal. However, the condensed timeline of Shadow and Bone season 2, which covers the entirety of Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising, means that Nikolai reveals his true identity in episode 3, giving us only one episode of Sturmhond, Mal, and Alina’s sailing adventures. The Shadow and Bone trilogy concludes with Nikolai ascending to the Ravkan throne, but he never retires his Sturmhond persona, even reappearing under the guise to work with Crows in Crooked Kingdom. Much of Siege and Storm follows Alina and Mal’s journey on Sturmhond’s ship, as they track down the sea whip on the Darkling’s orders and later escape from his control in a mutiny led by Sturmhond.

Netflix's hit fantasy series Shadow and Bone is officially back for a second season filled with more magic, romance, and epic adventures in the Grishaverse.

Six estranged siblings are reunited as adults and attempt to uncover the mystery behind their father's death — all while the world is ending around them. Like Shadow and Bone, this fantasy series is also based on a book series. General Kirigan is back to finish what he started, and this time, he has an indestructible army of shadow monsters by his side.