Shadow and Bone season 2 renewal, cast and release date

Archie Renaux, who plays Mal on the series, has said that he would love to see "new lands explored" in a follow-up series, while he has also given his thoughts on talk of a possible romance between his character and Alina Starkov.

The stars aren't the only people who are keen for another run, either – executive producer Leigh Bardugo, whose Grishaverse novels are the source for the series, previously told RadioTimes.com:"I think we’re all just sitting here with our fingers crossed, have the prayer circles going."

She added: “All I can say is, we have a plan – a cunning plan. There’s a lot of road. We just don’t know if we’ll get to walk it again.”

Telling the story of a young girl called Alina (Jessie Mei Li) who discovers her destiny as a light-summoning Grisha warrior, as well as a group of thieves tasked with a deadly heist, a troubled witch-hunter and much more, there’s plenty to explore if Netflix does order more episodes – so fingers crossed Shadow and Bone gets the renewal it’s hoping for.

Check out everything you need to know about Shadow and Bone season two below.

Shadow and Bone season 2 Netflix release date

Given that season two hasn’t had the green light just yet, it’s no surprise that there’s no word on when new episodes might finally be released.

Certainly, fans can expect to wait a while – filming on season one was concluded over a year before it aired on Netflix, and if fans can expect a similar timeline then we’re unlikely to see Shadow and Bone season two until at least a year and a half from now, possibly two years.

With that said, it’s possible the coronavirus pandemic delayed the arrival of season one, so it could be that season two would have a smoother (and quicker) postproduction process once filming does get underway.

In April 2021, showrunner Eric Heisserer told TVLine that he "heard anything yet” about a season two renewal, but added: "I want [the series] to run as long as it’s welcome and give life to these characters for as long as we don’t overstay that welcome. There’s so much material that Leigh has written, and there are so many compelling characters, I think this flagship show could last for four seasons. And then we could figure out if there’s a new space to live in with any of these people, or any part of the world that we want to spend more time with.”

Shadow and Bone season 2 cast

If there is a second season it might be assumed that all the main cast would return including Jessie Mei Li, Ben Barnes, Archie Renaux, Sujaya Dasgupta, Emily Head, Luke Pasqualino and Emily Head.

While the “Crows” (Kaz, Jesper and Inej, played by Freddy Carter, Kit Young and Amita Suman) don’t appear in Bardugo’s second Grisha novel, they also didn’t appear in the first – and it’s possible that season two would adapt their storyline from their first novel appearance Six of Crows.

“These worlds actually do crash into each other [later on] in the books, so it’s actually an organic thing to have these storylines cross over,” Bardugo told us.

“And if we get the chance at another season, I think that’s the way that we’re going to approach it. The way I look at it is, it’s a kind of alternative timeline Grishaverse. This isn’t the way it played out in the books, but there’s a way to retain the heart of the story, the soul of the characters, and still give readers this very different approach to the world.”

Even more intriguingly, the next season will also have to cast for some fan-favourite and major roles, most notably errant Ravkan Prince Nikolai Lantsov, who becomes a main character (and the lead of follow-up books King of Scars/Rule of Wolves) and Shu warriors Tolya and Tamar, who appear in several Grishaverse books themselves.

Shadow and Bone season 2 trailer

Sadly, with no official season two confirmation or filming we’re quite a long way away from a season two trailer. However, this page will be updated if and when that changes.

Shadow and Bone season 2 plot

We actually have a pretty good idea of what happens in Shadow and Bone season two, assuming it’s based on Bardugo’s second Grisha novel Siege and Storm as season one was based on her first book Shadow and Bone.

Without giving too much away, the story is likely to see Alina and Mal’s attempts to lie low thwarted by the Darkling, who (as we saw at the end of season one) now has the ability to create an army of shadows whenever he pleases. This sparks off a civil war between those loyal to the Darkling and those loyal to the crown, with Alina pulled between both groups before a cataclysmic finale.

However, Leigh Bardugo has suggested that season two could also pull from other books in her series, just as season one pulled from her Six of Crows duology despite those books originally being set in a different time period.

“If we get the green light for a second season, I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up pulling some things from different books,” Bardugo told RadioTimes.com. “This is something that [showrunner Eric Heisserer] has done very well.”

Specifically Bardugo noted that alongside Six of Crows, fans might expect material from novellas The Demon in the Wood and The Language of Thorns, as well as her most recent duology.

“Eric’s super-familiar with the entire canon, and so it’s made it possible to drop in things like The Demon in the Wood and The Language of Thorns and maybe even King of Scars, because there shouldn’t really be a limit within that universe,” she said.

“For season two, I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I really, really do hope that we start delving into Six of Crows because it’s such an epic, fantastical book, and it’s very cinematic,” Amita Suman added.

“What they do is almost an impossible heist. I think that’s going to be so exciting to watch. Again, I don’t know what they’re planning, but because they did such a good job in terms of merging the two stories together in season one, I fully trust them to do another fantastic job of telling both the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows stories.”

As for Mal star Archie Renaux, he told Glamour: "I'd like to see new lands explored and new countries within the Grishaverse. I'd also like to see the characters get split up and mixed and matched a little bit. So maybe we see Alina and Edge go out on a mission - that could be quite interesting or at least do it for a bit!"

And asked about possible romance between Mal and Alina, he said: "I am flattered that people think Mal and Alina are the ‘ship’’ because in reality that's the one that makes the most sense because the other guy [The Darkling] is a bit of a worry!"

Shadow and Bone is streaming on Netflix now. Want something else to watch? Read our guides to the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix.

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