Will Netflix renew Shadow and Bone for season 3? Is the show dead?

SHADOW AND BONE (L to R) JESSIE MEI LI as ALINA STARKOV and BEN BARNES as THE DARKLING / GENERAL KIRIGAN in SHADOW AND BONE Cr. DAVID APPLEBY/NETFLIX © 2021
SHADOW AND BONE (L to R) JESSIE MEI LI as ALINA STARKOV and BEN BARNES as THE DARKLING / GENERAL KIRIGAN in SHADOW AND BONE Cr. DAVID APPLEBY/NETFLIX © 2021

It’s been half a year since the second season of the fantasy show Shadow and Bone, an adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s novels, landed on Netflix, and still we’ve heard nothing about a renewal. Time to give up hope?

Shadow and Bone season 2 on March 16 of this year. It’s been a minute. Meanwhile, the Netflix show One Piece aired in late August and was renewed for a second season only two weeks later. You get the idea that if Netflix was going to renew Shadow and Bone, was going to do it by now.

Months ago, Shadow and Bone casting director Sophie Holland said that there is still a lot of enthusiasm for the show and that “we’re really hoping for a third season.” However, she added that renewal potential was “all about that first month’s performance on Netflix.” At this point, I’m betting that season 2 didn’t perform as well during its first month as Netflix was hoping.

Is it time to give up on Shadow and Bone season 3?

So what went wrong here? Part of the reason is that Netflix seems to have gotten ahead of itself with developing the series. It Shadow and Bone season 2, it rushed through Bardugo’s novels in a way that displeased some fans, possibly because they wanted to get the characters to the point where they were ready for Six of Crows spinoff, based on another set of Bargudo’s books considered to more popular.

In any case, it seems like the gamble failed. We haven’t heard a formal declaration of cancelation yet, but I get the idea that it’s only a matter of time.

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