Season two of Shadow and Bone expands the Grishaverse far beyond the restraints of Ravka and Ketterdam.
The delightful fantasy story is based on Leigh Bardugo’s book trilogy of the same name, combined with the Six of Crows duology. The show’s approach to adapting the story, by pairing several different series — which take place in different time frames — is confusing to some fans, who can’t quite piece together how the series is connected to Six of Crows.
How is the world of the Grisha connected to the Crows?
Adaptations have a tendency to make minor alterations to their source material, and in the case of Shadow and Bone, the series worked to combine two separate book series into one overarching story. It took plotlines from the Shadow and Bone series and combined them with characters from Six of Crows, and worked to marry the two together.
The books set their plots several years apart, with Kaz and the Crows (Dregs, in the books) entering the story after the Fold has already been dealt with. In the series, however, the Crows’ plot is pushed a few years backward, so that their story takes place at the same time as Alina’s.
The books always took place in the same world, they just separated themselves by a few thousand miles. The plot in Six of Crows never takes the crew to Ravka, but two of the team’s members — Nina and Inej — hail from Alina’s country of origin, and a few OG characters even get a cameo in the duology’s second book.
References to Alina — or Sankta Alina — are rife in both Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, thanks in large part to Inej’s dedication to her religion. Her favorite blade is named after the Sun Summoner, and Nina makes her own references to characters that Alina fought alongside in the battle against the Darkling. The two books were always connected, just not so inextricably as they are in Netflix’s adaptation.
The plot in Six of Crows has yet to make its way to the small screen, thanks in large part to the hurdle of marrying such a tight and well-realized heist alongside Alina’s comparatively slow-paced hunt for new amplifiers. Rumors indicate that — should Shadow and Bone return for a third season — viewers will finally get a chance to see the Ice Court storyline realized in live-action, but the jury’s still out on whether a third season is in the show’s future. Should it ever come to pass, however, chances are good that the Crows will reestablish themselves as the best elements of Leigh Bardugo’s world.
Shadow and Bone season two debuts on Netflix this March 16.
