Why Shadow and Bone Season 3 Could be the End

There is also another spinoff series that is yet to be adapted by Netflix as well as some companion novels, adding up to a whopping total of ten books that currently exist in the Grishaverse. Still, despite the number of books Netflix has to go within Bardugo’s canon, it very much feels that with the ending of season two, a third season may be the last for the Shadow and Bone series as we know it. Allow us to explain why.

Season three is pretty much ready to go based on previous comments by the showrunner. 

Back in 2021, Heisserer, who became the series showrunner at the recommendation of a friend, revealed to Collider that his plan for Shadow and Bone was always three seasons. Heisserer got the gig as showrunner because his friend gave him a copy of Bardugo’s books and he loved them so much that he tweeted the author to tell her how much he enjoyed them. That tweet led to Netflix calling him: “it was a year later that I got a call out of the blue from Netflix and they said, ‘Hey, we know you tweeted the author a year ago.’ You know, so I got past like the Big Brother paranoia and Leigh just remembered that. It really stuck with her. And she’s like, ‘Well, we can get the guy who wrote Arrival maybe, you know, ’cause he likes it.”

However, it wasn’t plain sailing for the series from there, as showrunner Heisserer almost left the series when Netflix revealed they didn’t have the rights to Bardugo’s second series, Six of Crows. Netflix later gained the rights to that saga, allowing Heisserer to combine the stories of Alina Starkov and the Crows together. 

Combining the two series was a real risk for Heisserer as each story runs on a different timeline, but Heisserer told TV Guide that telling both “required building some story — a prequel worth of story for some characters — so that we don’t break anything in Leigh Bardugo’s timeline.” His emphasis on not breaking the Grishavere’s timeline suggests that there are plans to tell the rest of the crow’s stories properly and thoroughly rather than make them a part of the Shadow and Bone series as it is currently. However, when Shadow and Bone writer Christina Strain was asked about the Six of Crows’ spinoff, she, tweeted “I seriously can not stress enough just how important it’ll be for people to watch Season 2 of Shadow and Bone.”

Strain’s comments make sense after watching season two and seeing the arrival of Prince Nikolai (Patrick Gibson) also known as the sea captain Sturhmond, and Grisha fighters Tamar (Anna Leong Brophy) and Tolya (Lewis Tan). As it highlights that season two is, in fact, following Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising, which are the final two books in the Shadow and Bone series.