Author Leigh Bardugo and showrunner Eric Heisserer explain how the characters and stories of the Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows duology will come together for Netflix's waded into the Grishaverse with the 2012 novel Shadow & Bone, which kicked off a trilogy centering on heroine Alina Starkov. Since then, Bardugo has added to her world with the hit Six of Crows duology, a spin-off series titled King of Scars, and a collection of short stories called The Language of Thorns. The Grishaverse's next medium? Live-action television.
Netflix announced Shadow & Bone to be in development in January 2019, with production starting up near the end of the year. The full Shadow & Bone cast was properly introduced earlier this year, when filming on the first season wrapped. Fans of the novels were both delighted and confused to learn characters from both the Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows will appear in Shadow & Bone, a strange development seeing as they take place at different points in time. Nevertheless, audiences will see both Alina (Jessie Mei Li) and Kaz Brekker (Freddie Carter) when Shadow & Bone arrives next year.
Bardugo and Heisserer (Arrival) shared a statement about how these two series will come together on Shadow & Bone (via EW). Essentially, Heisserer began, select characters from Six of Crows will receive new stories during the first season. "So what Leigh and I had to do was essentially invent prequel stories for the key Six of Crows characters this season — Kaz, Inej, and Jesper — to fit alongside what is happening in the Shadow and Bone storyline. That's been the heavy lifting," Heisserer said. Fans who might feel wary about this could relax with Bardugo praising Heisserer's work and adding, "I don't think I could've been more lucky in the person that we found to hand the keys over to."
This new combination of characters and timelines means certain people will get to interact when they might not have in the books. Neither Bardugo nor Heisserer revealed which new dynamics fans can expect, but Heisserer is quite excited about them. "I get most excited talking about certain characters meeting certain other characters — meetings that don’t happen in the books because they’re set on different timelines. But they happen in the show, and I believe those moments are meaningful," he said. Beyond Alina and Kaz, Shadow & Bone will include Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan), Jesper Fahey (Kit Young), Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman), Zoya Nazyalensky (Sujaya Dasgupta), and General Kirigan, aka the Darkling (Ben Barnes).
When it comes to television or film adaptations of beloved novels, fans always go in with strong opinions about how things should be done. Shadow & Bones' approach of bringing together two separate timelines could feel like an unconventional way of telling this story, but it's one that can open up new story opportunities. As Heisserer pointed out, characters get to interact in new ways on Shadow & Bone, and for the Six of Crows crew, they'll get deeper backstories. Should Shadow & Bone get renewed for a second season, more characters will appear and further deepen the onscreen Grishaverse. Those who might feel uncertain about these changes just might end up surprised by what Bardugo and Heisserer have in store.
Shadow & Bone will premiere on Netflix in April 2021.
Source: EW