Netflix has announced its lead ensemble cast for the streamer’s Shadow and Bone series adaptation based on Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy trilogy Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows novels.
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In the eight-part series, Ben Barnes (The Punisher, Westworld) will play General Kirigan, Freddy Carter (Pennyworth) will play Kaz Brekker, Jessie Mei Li (Together, They Smoke) will play Alina Starkov, Archie Renaux (Gold Digger) will play Malyen Oretsev, Amita Suman (Doctor Who) will play Inej, and Kit Young (Endeavour) will play Jasper Fahey.
Based on the novels from author Leigh Bardugo, the series is being created, written, executive produced and showrun by Eric Heisserer, who is well-known for scripting the 2016 horror hit Lights Out as well as the Oscar-nominated sci-fi thriller Arrival. Heisserer’s other notable credits include the post-apocalyptic thriller Bird Box, which has been a massive ratings hit for the streaming service and received acclaim from audiences and generally positive reviews from critics.
Set in the Grishaverse, the series will combine the stories and characters of Shadow and Crows in a world divided in two by a barrier of pure darkness, in which evil creatures hunt and feast on humans on either side of the barrier. A soldier discovers a magical power that may be able to unite the two countries, but with numerous forces scheming against her and a war brewing between the various factions and classes in the universe, she must race against time to find a way to use her power for good.
The series is set to be executive produced by Shawn Levy through 21 Laps Entertainment as part of his overall deal with Netflix, which includes the sci-fi horror hit Stranger Things, as well as Pouya Shahbazian (the Divergent franchise), Bardugo, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen and Josh Barry.
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The Grishaverse series has been a bestselling franchise since its 2012 debut with Shadow, selling over 2.5 million copies in English while also having been translated into 38 languages around the world. The next installment in the series, King of Scars, is set to hit shelves later this month.
The rights to the franchise were originally acquired by DreamWorks in 2012 with Christopher Kyle (Alexander) set to script the project, but nothing ever came to fruition of the project.
