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Why did Netflix cancel Shadow and Bone?

By WiC Staff

Shadow and Bone. (L to R) Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, Kit Young as Jesper Fahey in episode 201 of Shadow and Bone. Cr. Dávid Lukács/Netflix © 2023
Shadow and Bone. (L to R) Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, Kit Young as Jesper Fahey in episode 201 of Shadow and Bone. Cr. Dávid Lukács/Netflix © 2023 /
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Shadow and Bone will not get a third season. Netflix has cancelled the hit fantasy series based on the books by Leigh Bardugo, as well as a planned spinoff based on Bardugo’s Six of Crows novels. Our sympathies go out to the fans.

So why did Netflix decide not to renew the continuing adventures of Alina Starkov, Sun Summoner? Based on reports from Deadline and elsewhere, there seem to be a few big reasons:

  1. Shadow and Bone season 2 wasn’t popular. Or at least, it wasn’t as popular as the first season. When season 2 dropped in March of this year, it spent some time in the list of Top 10 English-language series on Netflix, but not enough for the studio’s liking. Shadow and Bone is an expensive show to produce. Given the flagging numbers, Netflix probably concluded that it wasn’t worth making more episodes, to say nothing of a spinoff.
  2. Shadow and Bone season 2 wasn’t that good. Or at least, it wasn’t as good as season 1. That was our conclusion when we watched it, anyway. The second season blasted through the second two books in Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy and then changed the ending. The whole thing felt a bit rushed and unsatisfying. The producers seemed to be in a hurry so they could set up the Six of Crows spinoff, but now that isn’t happening either. The drop in quality (in our opinion, anyway) could account for why season 2 wasn’t as popular as season 1.
  3. The actors and writers strikes threw off the schedule. For several months in 2023, both actors and writers were on strike in Hollywood. The strikes are now resolved, but they threw a wrench into the schedules studios had worked out beforehand. Now that Hollywood is open for business again, studios had to decide which projects to move forward and which were best left by the wayside. Shadow and Bone fell into the latter pile.

Right now, we haven’t heard anything about Shadow and Bone making a comeback. RIP.

dark. Next. Shadow and Bone author “heartbroken” over show’s cancelation

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