There’s So Much More Shadow & Bone On The Way

Alina may be able to summon the sun, but the loyal fans of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone showed their own true power by summoning a second season of the hit series. The streaming giant announced on June 7 that we will soon return to the Grishaverse and follow along as the adventures continue for our favourite characters (Milo the goat included).

“I’m honored and thrilled to return to the Grishaverse and continue the stories of these endearing characters, particularly Milo,” executive producer and showrunner Eric Heisserer said in a statement. Like the first season, the second will be made up of eight hour-long episodes.

“I’ve been writing in the Grishaverse for nearly ten years now, so I’m thrilled we get to keep this adventure going,” said Leigh Bardugo, executive producer and author of the best-selling book series that the show is based on. “There are so many places we’ve barely gotten to visit and I can’t wait to introduce our audience to more of the saints, soldiers, thugs, thieves, princes and privateers who make this world so much fun to explore. It’s going to be real magic to see our brilliant, talented cast expand.”

Shadow and Bone is set in the fantastical kingdom of Ravka, which is facing multiple wars. Ravka’s military is divided between the First Army (regular soldiers) and the Second Army — a unit of powerful, witch-like people called “Grisha.” First Army member Alina Starvkov (Jessie Mei Li), realises she is much more than a common mapmaker. In fact, she could be the key to bringing down The Fold, a mysterious supernatural shadow barrier that cuts the country in half and is filled with dangerous monsters. The story only gets more complicated from there and is filled to the brim with crisscrossing storylines and colourful characters. And at the end, we are left with a major cliffhanger that Heisserer had told Variety before the show aired that was his way to "[dare] Netflix not to renew us."

His plan worked: Following the show's April 23 debut, Shadow and Bone reached the top of Netflix's Top 10 in 79 countries, and according to Netflix, more than 55 million households watched the series over its first month. The entire Grishaverse book series is comprised of around 10 novels, so there will be much more to cover in the next season (and even more beyond that, in all likelihood). Heisserer made the choice to combine Bardoguo's Shadow and Bone trilogy with her Six of Crows duology (same world, but two separate storylines and groups of characters) for the Netflix series, and informally started to work on season 2.

“We had so much fun at the moments when these two sets of characters could find ways to integrate,” he said. “I have a lot of fun theories about how we can make this happen organically again, without really disturbing too much of the separate storylines that they’re on.”

The show's cast excitedly announced the news in a video, reiterating how much they're looking forward to continuing the series.

"Thank you so much to everyone who's watched so far. We're so excited to continue telling this story, and we are so so grateful because we could not have done it without you. Well, you and Milo, of course," they said.

Honestly, we're also thankful for the power to summon sexy Darkling aka General Kirigan (Ben Barnes) again.