[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Shadow and Bone Season 1.]
The launch of Shadow and Bone on Netflix has been highly anticipated by fans of author Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books, not only to see these characters live and in the flesh, but to hopefully begin a journey that will last seasons to come. The 8-episode first season combines characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy with characters from the Six of Crows duology (which takes place years after the events of Shadow and Bone) in a compelling and exciting way, and while the season is eventful in and of itself, it also lays the groundwork for plenty of story to come in Shadow and Bone Season 2 and beyond.
The first season of Shadow and Bone is really Alina’s (Jessie Mei Li) journey, as she goes from a lowly orphan mapmaker to a saintly Sun Summoner capable of immense power by the end of the season. The first part of this journey ends with Alina and the Darkling (Ben Barnes) having finally faced off inside the Fold, with Alina now imbued with the power of the magical stag. But the final shot of the season sees the wounded Darkling walking out of the Fold with those ghastly creatures in tow, setting up even more confrontations to come.
Perhaps most excitingly, the season ends with Alina, Mal (Archie Renaux), Kaz (Freddy Carter), Inej (Amita Suman), Jesper (Kit Young), and Nina (Danielle Galligan) all on the same boat heading towards West Ravka. After a season of the characters split up and moving towards one another, there’s some sense of unity as we head into Shadow and Bone Season 2.
Speaking of, Netflix has not yet officially renewed Shadow and Bone for a second season, but when I spoke with showrunner Eric Heisserer and Bardugo about their work on the series in separate interviews, they made clear they have big plans ahead should they get the opportunity to continue. Speaking specifically about the Shadow and Bone finale, Heisserer said that while Alina is powered up heading into Season 2, the Darkling will be a more formidable foe thanks to his new companions:
“In the books, these are called Nichevo'ya, which is Ravkan for "nothing" and they will be a level up kind of opponent for Alina, Mal and anybody else who runs into Kirigan, should we be as privileged as to have a second season, because these are things that can walk around in broad daylight. Both of them have a level up going into the second season, but I think Alina knows somewhere in her gut that, even with the stag antler amplifier, she cannot draw enough light to take down the Fold. So we'll have to explore what other options are available for her in the second season.”
Heisserer said he has “exhaustive” plans for Season 2 and would “love to activate them,” adding that he’s been thinking about Shadow and Bone for years, “so the creative team and I are ready to roll if we hear that we get to come back.” As for what fans can expect, specifically, from Shadow and Bone Season 2, Heisserer was fairly tight-lipped but did confirm one character we’ll see in the second season: Wylan:
“I would love to talk about what we might get to see from Six of Crows in the second season. I can tease this much that there will be a hundred percent more Wylan. We'd like to introduce him for sure. And we would like to spend at least a little bit more time in Ketterdam. We kind of had to yoink our Crows away from that in Season 1 and throw them toward the Fold and beyond for their heist. And I think at least part of next season should be a home game for our team.”
Bardugo similarly was tight-lipped, but when asked hypothetically what she’d like to see in Shadow and Bone Season 2, she had a few specifics in mind:
“For me, the big thing, I want to see Sturmhond, the Privateer. I want to see Wylan, who is the only pro we don't get to see in Season 1. I'd love to see Tolya and Tamar. The problem with seeing your characters brought to life by fabulous actors is that it makes you very greedy, and I would be thrilled to see who we could find to play what are quite challenging roles. There's just so much story.”
Speaking of so much story, I asked Heisserer about his supposed three-season plan for the Grishaverse, and he clarified the show has the potential to run for much longer than three seasons:
“There's a lot for us to cover, of course. It can be far more than three seasons because Leigh's just written so many books and there's a lot of ground for us to cover. I feel like this is going to remain strong and healthy even at four seasons and beyond that, who knows? But I feel very nervous talking about that. I feel like I'm the baseball player pointing at the rafters and I have no idea.”
For Bardugo’s part, she said she feels secure in knowing that she’s completed some semblance of an ending to the Grishaverse with the publication of Rule of Wolves this past March:
“I feel a lot of relief because I just released Rule of Wolves, which is a goodbye for now to the Grishaverse. There's a very good chance I'll write more Grishaverse books in the future, but if I don't, I feel like I've tied up the storylines in a way that gives me a lot of peace, so that the writers of the show can be free to be bold and daring in where they want to take the stories. There's plenty of material for them, should they desire it.”
But Bardugo also added that even though there are seven books in the Grishaverse series right now, she doesn’t necessarily think it’ll take seven full seasons of the TV show to tell that story:
“I would prefer not to get too deeply into specifics. But I will say this, which is that there are currently seven novels in the Grishaverse, not counting the short stories. And I don't believe it takes seven seasons to get through that story, because we've created this alternate timeline. But I'm not the showrunner, so we'll see what Eric has in mind.”
All of this, of course, is dependent upon how popular this first season of Shadow and Bone is but having seen the entire season, I feel confident that folks who do check it out will be dying to see more stories involving these characters. And based on how shows like The Witcher caught on like wildfire, there’s certainly an audience for fantasy storytelling on Netflix. So cross your fingers, because Heisserer, Bardugo, and the whole Shadow and Bone team have grand hopes and plans for much more story to come.