We won’t be going back to Ravka. Or to Ketterdam, or—maybe most disappointingly—to the Ice Court. Netflix has cancelled Shadow and Bone, and it looks like any hope of a Six of Crows spinoff dies with the original series.
As Variety says, “It’s worth noting that Netflix still decided to cancel the series despite the show drawing a sizable audience and sparked a video game franchise.” (The streamer just released the trailer for Shadow and Bone: Enter the Fold during last week’s “Geeked Week” promotion.)
Deadline cites the production delays caused by the writers’ and actors’ strikes as a factor in the cancellation, and also says, “Season 2 of the big-budget fantasy drama, which launched in March, did not have the same impact Season 1 did. The series spent five weeks in the weekly Top 10 for English-language series without getting to No.1. That, coupled with the potential delay of Season 3, likely factored into the decision not to move forward.”
It’s a huge disappointment for fans—and not just because showrunner Eric Heisserer planned a three-season story, and season two had a twisty, tantalizing ending. Author Leigh Bardugo put it plainly on Instagram: “There will be no season 3 for Shadow and Bone and no Six of Crows spinoff.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Czr0hXUP_JB
Earlier this year, Heisserer teased that the main plot of Six of Crows, the first book in the duology about Kaz Brekker and the Dregs, “requires its own lane”—meaning the Ice Court heist would not be part of Shadow and Bone. Heisserer told Entertainment Weekly that he was working on a Six of Crows spinoff that would put the focus clearly on Kaz and the gang.
He also said, “But of course, it’s about how well season 2 numbers do.” And Netflix clearly thinks they didn’t do well enough.
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