Netflix is throwing its hat farther into the YA adaptation ring with the first teaser trailer for Shadow and Bone and the reveal of its release month. The series will adapt two of author Leigh Bardugo’s book series that take place in the same universe: the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. The characters in the two series’s stories will unfold in tandem, but since Six of Crows takes place chronologically after Shadow and Bone, this Netflix series will also tell new prequel storylines with its Six of Crows characters.
The teaser doesn’t show much, but fans of the series will probably recognize some familiar iconography. The mushed together storylines will follow Alina Starkov, a low-level soldier and orphan who lives in a war-torn world. She has just discovered an extraordinary power within herself that could provide the chance to set her country free. “With the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold looming, Alina is torn from everything she knows to train as part of an elite army of magical soldiers known as Grisha.” But as she struggles to hone her power, she starts to realize that things aren’t quite as black and white as they appear.
Eric Heisserer, the screenwriter of Arrival, is acting as showrunner / executive producer / writer for the series with the book’s author, Bardugo, taking on an executive producer role and overseeing the overall stories. The show stars Jessie Mei Li (Alina Starkov), Archie Renaux (Malyen Oretsev), Freddy Carter (Kaz Brekker), Amita Suman (Inej), Kit Young (Jesper Fahey), and Ben Barnes (General Kirigan).
Shadow and Bone will premiere in April of 2021.
