Shadow and Bone’s New Season Will Continue to Change the Story

In a new interview, Shadow and Bone showrunners Eric Heisserer and Daegan Fryklind have revealed some of the thought processes behind the second season’s adaptation hang-ups. It’s a complicated undertaking, since the show takes inspiration from not only Leigh Bardugo’s original Shadow and Bone trilogy, but also the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology.

The showrunners told Entertainment Weekly that season two covers “multiple books” and touches on “deep cut” plotlines that not even Bardugo saw coming. Shadow and Bone won’t return to Netflix until early spring, so the showrunners kept mum on the details beyond that—though they were willing to say that the second season will cover the second book in the Shadow trilogy, Siege and Storm, and will include some events of the third book, Ruin and Rising. And while the characters from Six of Crows famously made an appearance in the first season of Shadow and Bone, Heisserer and Fryklind say that the plot of the duology will “require its own lane,” so fans can expect a similar mashing of plots in a way that creates a unique and more nuanced look at the Young Adult series.

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The blending of both the middle YA Shadow and Bone trilogy (which I consider aggressively fine) and the upper YA/more adult Six of Crows duology (which remains a pair of my favorite fantasy books, they are that exceptional) was one of the best parts of the show. It elevated the source material and provided an easy impetus for change, giving all the characters a richer storyline.

Heisserer and Fryklind told the magazine they’re excited to show off the new storyline, which will include Nikolia Latntsov (Patrick Gibson), the grisha twins Tamar Kir-Bataar (Anna Leong Brophy) and Tolya Yul-Bataar (Lewis Tan), and Wylan Hendriks (Jack Wolfe). There will be nods “to the Crows storyline” but they are saving the “Ice Court job” for another season. While it’s true that this is the main plot of the second Crows book, the first book’s plotline is centered on a plot to create an artificial amplification drug (jura parem) for the grisha based on a plant that has a fictional positioning not unlike opium.

With multiple storylines in the new season there will be more ways in which the threads of the books tie themselves together in the television series—and from what they could reveal, the showrunners sound committed to having fun and creating a cohesive story that embellishes and adds to the plot of the original series of books. Shadow and Bone season two arrives on Netflix on March 16.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.

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