Jessie Mei Li, Ben Barnes & Daisy Head Interview: Shadow & Bone Season 2 (2024)

Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) is back and on the run when season 2 premieres. After defeating the Darkling (Ben Barnes) inside the Fold, the Crows, Alina, and Mal have scattered to the wind. The Darkling may be missing in action, but his expansion of the Fold at the end of season 1 has had a profound effect on the world around them.

With many thinking the Sun Summoner herself may be involved with the Darkling's evil doings, Alina must keep a low profile. That may prove difficult, though, as she hunts for two legendary amplifiers that will help her once the Darkling returns with a new army alongside him. , which will adapt elements of books two and three in Leigh Bardugo's flagship trilogy, will also see the return of the Crows, as well as the debut of Nikolai Lantsov (Patrick Gibson) and Tolya Yul-Bataar (Lewis Tan) and Tamar Kir-Bataar (Anna Leong Brophy). Alina will still take center stage, though, as the fallout from the Darkling's actions continues.

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Ahead of the Shadow & Bone season 2 premiere, Screen Rant sat down with Li, Barnes, and Head to talk about the future of the show, including the darkness inside Alina and Genya's journey in the new episodes.

Li, Barnes & Head on Shadow & Bone Season 2

Screen Rant: Ben, season 2 is all about hope and love defying the odds in the face of darkness. But the Darkling didn't really have much of that. Do you feel he might have found redemption if he met Alina maybe a century before, or do you think he was just too consumed with power and his love for it by that time?

Ben Barnes: I think that's a really, really good question. We get a little tease near the end of the first season about what his life might have been like a century before. And I think that there is a kernel of a man inside of him instead of the general. Inside, you can see where he's come from. That there was love, there was hope, there was joy. There was a way of going about doing things that was more gracious, and I think that he's very much become blinkered along the way in terms of how he can cope with things. And frustration builds and rage builds, and the betrayals add up...

I'm not making excuses for this psychotic, toxic villain character, but I think that the interesting things for me in the second season were to chart where the tiny cracks of hope and vulnerability [are]. If you want to really see poisoned and dark, it's got to be balanced with something. You've got to see this potential, like you said, for a little bit of hope.

I think what's interesting about the show is that we have 16 main characters, and all of them are capable of going dark; all of them are capable of being hopeful and joyful, and all of them are capable of falling in love. It's just to what degree and to what extent and under what circ*mstances. I think seeing them all navigate that is what makes the show really watchable this season.

Alina also has quite an emotional arc in season 2. Jessie, how do you feel her choices, her fight for love, and her connection to the Darkling will affect her moving forward? Especially considering the ending of season 2, where we see a potentially darker path for her going forward.

Jessie Mei Li: What I love about Alina is, from season 1 until now the end of season 2, she has had such a journey. Reading the scripts in season 1, the word I attached to Alina was that she was scared; she was afraid. For a lot of season 1, even towards the end, when she grows in power, she uses her powers in a reactionary way out of fear.

In season 2, we see her growing. Rather than fear, it's bravery. We see that she's afraid, but she's overcoming it. I find that to be very compelling; when you see someone that's been weak and vulnerable trying their best. What I really liked about it is, like you said, towards the end of the season, there's a little hint that we could be moving away from that into a territory where she's no longer brave but fearless. She's gone on this journey, and that can be dangerous as a character trait. I think it's really exciting.

It was really interesting to kind of delve into these parts of Alina that weren't necessarily in the books and were very much brought in by our writers, and lots of real-life experiences are thrown in the mix there. You can really feel that arc and feel that character growing and changing.

Daisy, Genya gets to have an amazing arc this season, reckoning with how she was treated by the royal family and the Darkling and dealing with this trauma that she's carrying. What was it like to explore this side of the character in such a way?

Daisy Head: I think it's incredibly powerful. I think all humans at some point will inevitably feel and face some kind of pain in their life, and we have no choice in that. But where we do have a choice is how we exist through the suffering, and whether we let ourselves suffer or we use the pain that we've endured to strengthen our character and try and navigate through life in spite of it.

I really appreciate that aspect of Genya. Obviously, it has an effect on her, but she utilizes it in order to try and do better and be better and do what's morally right. I think it's incredibly powerful and a good lesson for all that, although you can't choose your pain, you can choose your suffering.

About Shadow & Bone Season 2

Alina Starkov is on the run. A beacon of hope to some and a suspected traitor to others, she's determined to bring down the Shadow Fold and save Ravka from ruin. But General Kirigan has returned to finish what he started. Backed by a terrifying new army of seemingly indestructible shadow monsters and fearsome new Grisha recruits, Kirigan is more dangerous than ever. To stand a fighting chance against him, Alina and Mal rally their own powerful new allies and begin a continent-spanning journey to find two mythical creatures that will amplify her powers.

Back in Ketterdam, the Crows must forge new alliances as they contend with old rivals and even older grudges that threaten not only their place in the Barrel, but their very lives. When a chance at a deadly heist comes their way, the Crows will once again find themselves on a collision course with the legendary Sun Summoner. Based on Leigh Bardugo's worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, SHADOW AND BONE returns for a second season of new friendships, new romance, bigger battles, epic adventures — and a shocking family secret that could shatter everything.

Check back soon for our other interviews with the Shadow & Bone season 2 cast:

• Freddy Carter (Kaz Brekker), Amita Suman (Inej Ghafa), Kit Young (Jesper Fahey), Danielle Galligan (Nina Zenik), Calahan Skogman (Matthias Helvar) & Jack Wolfe (Wylan Hendriks)
• Newcomers to the Grishaverse: Lewis Tan (Tolya Yul-Bataar), Anna Leong Brophy (Tamar Kir-Bataar) & Patrick Gibson (Nikolai Lantsov)

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Shadow & Bone season 2 premieres on Netflix on March 16.