Leigh Bardugo talks Shadow and Bone season 2, expanding the Grishaverse

Hot off the release of her new novel Hell Bent last month, Bardugo is now gearing up for the release of Shadow and Bone season 2, the Netflix show based on her bestselling Grishaverse novels. She also has several secret projects in the works, as well as working on the Amazon TV adaptation of her novel Ninth House (of which Hell Bent is the sequel). Collider had the opportunity to speak with Bardugo about the upcoming season of Shadow and Bone, as well as the wider Grishaverse.

For those unaware, Bardugo’s Grishaverse spans seven novels (the Shadow and Bone series, the Six of Crows series, and the King of Scars series), with each series focusing on different characters and storylines. It is a world full of magic, pirates, princes, power and thievery, and yet the books are endlessly funny and deliciously captivating to read. The TV series Shadow and Bone primarily adapts the Shadow and Bone series, following the story of Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) who has the rare ability of to summon sunlight. But it also brings in characters from Six of Crows, creating new storylines and new character interactions for viewers to enjoy whilst still staying loyal to the heart of the books.

Bardugo isn’t as involved with season 2 of the Netflix show as she was with the first. “I made a deal with myself that if we got a second season, I was going to take a step back from the adaptation process and be a little bit less hands-on,” she said. “And I think that that is not only something I did because I needed to get back to writing books and I simply did not have the time.”

"Another part of it was saying, look, y’all made your bones. You proved yourselves. You have created this thing that has its own life. These actors have brought their own talent and identity to these characters, and it’s time for this to live separately from the books."

Bardugo was keen to underline that the show and the novels are separate entities. “So to me, it was about letting the show be its own thing and then letting them try to work out the logistics of how these stories and worlds and characters were going to bump into each other again, really crash into each other again,” she said. “But I think that the writers, I think they took the foundation they built in Season 1, and they really let themselves go wild with it. And I always like that. I respect that.” So while the books and show differ somewhat, the series has the stamp of approval from the original author.

Will Leigh Bardugo write a third Six of Crows novel?

Bardugo also commented on long-running rumors about a third Six of Crows novel, firmly putting the brakes on any idea that we could be getting one soon. “A third Six of Crows is a big ‘someday’. I have an idea for the plot of it, and I’ve had it for a long time,” she said. “But for me, the Grishaverse has gotten a little crowded at this point and a little noisy. And there are other projects that I want to work on. And for me, I don’t want to write that book with those characters until I really want to do it.”

"[The characters] mean a great deal to me, and I know that they matter to a lot of readers. So that’s a maybe. It’s a big, maybe."

However, Bardugo did offer Grishaverse readers a glimpse of hope. “[T]here’s actually a few places in the Grishaverse that I’m going to get to explore in a sort of different format and way that I can’t talk about yet but that I’m excited about because it’s going to involve a different kind of collaboration.”

There are certainly areas of the Grishaverse which we haven’t spent much time in, so this gives readers some food for thought. Whatever it is Bardugo ends up releasing, we can safely assume it will be utterly engrossing.

All Seven Grishaverse novels are available to purchase now. Shadow and Bone season 2 premieres on Netflix on March 16.

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