Ben Barnes wants Shadow and Bone season 2 to “turn the fire back up”

The second season of Shadow and Bone is on the way, meaning a return to Ravka, Ketterdam, the Fold and all the other places Leigh Bardugo dreamed up in her fantasy novels.

We’ll also get to spend more time with General Kirigan, aka the Darkling, the megalomaniacal villain who tried to take over the country in season 1 only to be stopped by Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) and her friends. Actor Ben Barnes is looking forward to exploring the characters’ depths, even though he’s kind of at arm’s length during this stretch of the books.

“For me, I think, in the books, the Darkling character becomes a little bit conceptual, he appears in Alina’s dreams a lot,” Barnes said on a panel at MCM London Comic-Con, per Radio Times. “And he’s perceived as a sort of threat of danger rather than an actual human being in terms of the character in the story. I’m excited to see how they can make him a human being and see what his agenda is.”

Naturally, Barnes also wants to see more of the complicated relationship between the Darkling and Alina; at first he seemed to be acting as a kind of mentor and even love interest for her, but after she caught on to his plans, she was out. “So I want to see how kind of conflicted that that relationship can become,” Barnes said.

"Because I think after episode five in the first season, she no longer trusts him. So their chemistry is kind of diluted, and I would be very interested to see if they can turn the fire back up a bit."

There are many fans who are probably with him on that one.

Freddy Carter wants to explore Kaz’s backstory on Shadow and Bone

Freddy Carter, who plays the inscrutable Kaz Brekker on the show, was also on the panel, and he shared his hopes for season 2. “First things first, I want to go backwards,” Carter said. “I think I really want to show Kaz’s backstory, which is sad for me because I’ll probably be a little old to do it. But I think that would be pretty cool. I think it’s quite important for the show. I’d love to see that to go back and see where Kaz Brekker came from.”

Barnes, who has clearly done his homework, agreed. “Yeah, that’s one of my favourite parts from the book actually,” he said. “Kaz’s backstory is kind of wonderfully painful.”

There’s no release date set for Shadow and Bone season 2 as of yet, but expect it to drop on Netflix in either late 2022 or early 2023.

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