Ready for more! Netflix’s breakout series Shadow and Bone is gearing up for a second season, and Jessie Mei Li is ready to return as Alina Starkov.
Based on the book series by Leigh Bardugo, the fantasy series premiered in April 2021 and introduced viewers to the Grisha universe. Throughout the show’s first season, the orphaned main character, Alina, discovered that she’s a Grisha and possesses the Sun Summoning power.
“She’s like a sort of a stray dog that you might find in an alley,” Jessie told Vanity Fair of Alina as the show premiered, noting that the character “doesn’t start off as being really strong.”
As the season progressed, Alina started to take hold of her power and meets some allies — and enemies — along the way. General Aleksandr Kirigan (Ben Barnes), for one, initially appears as someone who may help Alina, but it’s revealed that he’s actually a particularly evil character called The Darkling.
“He is a sort of enigmatic, slightly mysterious, isolated, lonely, brooding figure as we come to meet him at the beginning,” Ben told Seventeen in April 2021 of the villain. “The thing that interests me about him is finding the things that are in opposition to those qualities. If he’s powerful, where can he be vulnerable? And if he’s cold, where is there warmth in him? Where there’s anger, is there any potential for love as well? And I don’t mean romantic love, I just mean loving anyone. I find the cracks in the facade to remind people of the human being that he certainly once was.”
Fans find Alina and the other Shadow and Bone characters thinking they defeated The Darkling at the end of season 1. In June 2021, the streaming service confirmed that the Grisha would be back for more when renewing the show for a second season.
“We’ve watched Alina’s journey and she’s always wanting to do the right thing,” Jessie told Harper’s Bazaar in April 2021 of Alina’s future. “But I think it would be interesting to see that other side of her that’s slightly hinted at — the side of her that is kind of seduced by her power and the possibility of her life with Kirigan and things like that. I’d like to give her an opportunity to, I don’t know, maybe be a bit evil. Why not? Maybe just for a minute.”
Scroll through our gallery for everything we know about Shadow and Bone season 2 so far.
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