Showrunner Talks Adapting Multiple Storylines

Shadow and Bone Season 2 is here after months of anticipation from fans. While the first season remained faithful to its source material the book of the same name and Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo, the new season is a mix of multiple storylines from across her Grisha-verse works. While it remains to be seen how fans feel about it, the good part is the deliberate manipulation of time keeps the show unpredictable for the viewers. Showrunner Eric Heisserer recently revealed to Comicbook that the intention to mix several storylines was to keep fans guessing.

Heisserer describes the adaptation to be a “parallel universe” to what the books have established, and tells that in part it comes out of a “necessity in that there are elements that just don’t end up translating in an adaptation.” Nonetheless, he assured fans that they “try our best first and foremost, to preserve an aesthetic fidelity to the source material.” Noting that when they have to deviate from that “it needs to be bolstered by as much canonical information as possible so that it still feels like we’re in Leigh’s world.” He feels that “the changes that we do make might be just enough to keep fans on their toes and not know where we’re going, while also recognizing certain milestones or important landmarks that happen in the series.”

Who Are the New Characters in Season 2?

Season 2 introduced characters like Wylan, and the trio of Nikolai, Tolya, and Tamar, who were inserted into Alina Starkov’s storyline. “Thankfully the path for them was largely built out in these books,” Heisserer notes. They used that as a “starting point” and figured out “how that could work with the storyline that we developed with the Crows in this season, and how we integrated Sturmhond and Nikolai.” He further elaborates,

“Along with the characters that we had carrying over from season one, the writers and I soon realized we had a lot of mouths to feed and it was really about striking that balance and making sure that each character got as much attention as we could give them.”

RELATED: ‘Shadow and Bone’ Season 2 Review: A Brilliant Start That Squanders Its Potential

The series cast Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov, Archie Renaux as Malyen “Mal” Oretsev, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa, Kit Young as Jesper Fahey, Ben Barnes as The Darkling, Zoë Wanamaker as Baghra, while the second season adds Lewis Tan as Tolya, Patrick Gibson as Nikolai, Anna Leong Brophy as Tamar, Jack Wolfe as Wylan among others.

Season 2 of Shadow and Bone is streaming on Netflix. You can check out the trailer below: