Season 2 of Shadow of Bone premiered back in March, but Netflix hasn’t announced a renewal, nor announced that they’re moving forward on a planned Six of Crows spinoff. Given the streamer’s growing reputation for axing shows with alarming speed — Warrior Nun, Cowboy Bebop, 1899, etc — Shadow and Bone fans are more than a little nervous.
Some of those fans are taking cues from the Crows. When luck doesn’t seem to be on your side, you make your own.
Shadow and Bone fans are pulling out the stops, but will it make the difference?
Earlier this week, Rolling Stone looked at how fans of author Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse are going above and beyond to try and secure a future for the Shadow and Bone Cinematic Universe. “We had to come up with something to keep the fandom and the energy alive,” the owner of popular fan account @flawlqes told the magazine. “Netflix is such an unstable streaming service. You never know if your favorite show is gonna get renewed or it’s gonna get canceled, and we always had that doubt. So from day one, we just did our best.”
What are the ways the fandom is keeping the energy alive, you may ask? They include watching both seasons 1 and 2 multiple times a week in order to keep Shadow and Bone high on Netflix’s top-ten lists, hosting virtual watch parties on social media and in the r/ShadowandBone subreddit, and even keeping the show running in the background as they go about their day-to-day lives in an attempt to give it more views. One particular fan told Rolling Stone that they had watched Shadow and Bone in its entirety 60 times.
Will any of it make a difference? It’s too early to say, but you have to give it to the fans for trying to beat Netflix at its own game. The streamer has seemingly put a lot of pressure on shows to become immediate mega-hits or die…and if one of the primary ways they’re gauging that is in watch hours, then this strategy may work.
Both seasons of Shadow and Bone are streaming now on Netflix. If you want to see season 3 or the Crows spinoff, then give it a watch. Or 60.
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h/t CBR.com