Ben Barnes talks about playing the Darkling on Netflix’s Shadow and Bone show

Ben Barnes tells us about Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, why it’s being combined with Six of Crows, and his powerful character, General Kirigan (the Darkling).

Ben Barnes has appeared in several well-loved genre shows, from HBO’s Westworld to Netflix’s The Punisher. Since he’s become such a recognizable face in fandom, it’s probably no surprise that his latest project is building up a lot of hype, especially since it’s based on a book series with an already-established fanbase: Shadow and Bone, which is coming to Netflix. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s YA trilogy of the same name — and throwing in characters from her Six of Crows duology — Netflix’s Shadow and Bone will bring to life the magical world of Ravka, and Barnes has a big role to play.

We recently with Barnes about his work, and of course we had to bring up Shadow and Bone. We’ve skipped to the pertinent part of the interview below:

Barnes is playing one of the biggest characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy: the Darkling. He’s going by the name General Kirigan in the upcoming show, but it seems the two are one and the same. And although Barnes couldn’t tell us much about Kirigan, let’s just say it’s probably a good thing he has so much experience playing morally dubious characters.

He did give a little background about Kirigan, though, explaining the character’s relationship to the Grisha — and not-so-subtly hinting at how powerful he is.

"I play this character who we’re calling General Kirigan, but he’s actually, if you know the books, he is the character of the Darkling. They have this order of magic, you know, people who have extraordinary magical abilities called the Grisha, and he is the leader of the Grisha army. He’s their general. So he’s basically the most powerful character in this universe as we meet him."

Barnes also talked about the source material, explaining why Netflix decided to mesh both of Bardugo’s stories into one, even though Six of Crows takes place years later.

"There’s a trilogy of books called the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and then there’s a duology called Six of Crows, which is sort of set a few years later. And we, for the sake of the show and being a full, rich, deep exciting world, they’re sort of drawing from both sets of books so we can have all of the characters together."

If you’ve never delved into any of Bardugo’s books, Barnes also made comparisons to some of the most beloved franchises in genre, painting a picture that will appeal to anyone who claims to be a fan of magic. (And likely confuse them with the later references.)

"It kind of has elements of Harry Potter with the different orders that people are grouped into … but then it also has this quest element, like a kind of Lord of the Rings, chosen-one element. But then, it’s kind of this Russian Anna Karenina, and then Six of Crows has more of a Peaky Blinders, heisty vibe to it. So it really does have all of those things kind of molded together — something that feels a bit, I think it feels quite different and interesting, and I’m excited for people to see it."

Barnes is right about one thing: We’re definitely excited to see how Netflix brings this story to life. Unfortunately, the actor couldn’t elaborate on when we might see the series arrive — but it sounds like it’ll be worth waiting for.

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