The Shadow and Bone map is vast, sprawling from the temperate coasts of Novyi Zem to the farmland of Ravka. The cast is equally extensive, boasting heroes, villains, thieves — and everyone in between.
When Season 2 of the fantasy epic debuts on March 16, we’ll get to check back in with hero Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a supernaturally powered Grisha with the ability to summon the sun from her very hands. Her allies include Malyen “Mal” Oretsev (Archie Renaux), her childhood chum turned maybe something more, the criminal gang the Crows and some newfound friends like the smirking privateer Sturmhond (Patrick Gibson). Yet, Alina also knows she has foes hiding in the darkness — literally, in the case of her shadow-summoning nemesis General Kirigan (Ben Barnes). Within these characters’ orbits are many, many confidants, subordinates and enemies.
Adapted from Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, the world of Shadow and Bone is immense and richly detailed. If you need help keeping track of it all, or simply want to know more about the actors portraying the drama’s most important players, keep reading.
Meet the Sun Summoner who has brought us all together. At the start of Shadow and Bone, Alina is an orphan and simple cartographer in Ravka’s First Army. Then a volcra attempts to separate her and her best friend/love interest Mal, forcing Alina to unleash her long-hidden abilities. Alina — who often feels like an outsider due to her half-Shu heritage — is the only person alive who can tear down the supernatural Shadow Fold that has split Ravka in two for centuries.
In Season 2, Alina sets off to find the two mythological amplifiers that can help her unite her country and defeat Kirigan. “Alina has more responsibilities and more powers. She’s the struggling savior,” Mei Li told Netflix. “She’s coming to terms with pain and love, and we start to see all these different sides to her and all of the challenges that she faces.”
Shadow and Bone is Mei Li’s breakout role, but you can also see her in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho.
You can follow Mei Li on Instagram.
Like Alina, Mal is a bi-racial orphan and Ravkan soldier who often experiences ostracization. Together, he finds family with Alina, along with a purpose. An expert tracker, in Season 2 Mal joins his best friend on her quest.
Sparks are bound to fly on their journey — and we’re not just talking about the kind that come from a sun summoning. “At the end of Season 1, while the audience is aware how much Mal and Alina love each other, they haven’t quite said that to each other yet,” Mei Li said. “So it was really fun and exciting to explore their blossoming love at a time that’s incredibly difficult for them both.”
While Shadow and Bone is Renaux’s first time playing a TV leading man, it’s not his first time charming the camera. He first worked with co-star Barnes on British mini-series Gold Digger and also popped up in the medieval coming-of-age drama Catherine Called Birdy and comic book flick Morbius.
You can follow Renaux on Instagram and Twitter.
Every story needs a villain and Kirigan is more than happy to haunt Shadow and Bone. The dashing (if mysterious) general of the Grisha-populated Second Army, Kirigan is the Grisha’s de facto leader. But as befitting his shadow-summoning abilities, he has a hidden side. Kirigan is also the mythologized Darkling, who created the Shadow Fold in the first place. He’s a complicated man.
In Season 2, Kirigan deals with Alina’s rejection of him, a brutal civil war he started against Ravka and the very taxing creation of shadow monsters. Kirigan has also been severely scratched up by volcra, which are monsters of his own making. “We find this slightly angrier, more poisonous version of this man in Season 2,” Barnes told Netflix.
Shadow and Bone is far from Barnes’s first walk through the fantasy park: He first broke out with the titular role in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He has since appeared in Chronicles of Narnia threequel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, as well as Dorian Gray, Seventh Son, Westworld and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
You can follow Barnes on Instagram and Twitter.
Shadow and Bone isn’t only a story about the politics and power struggles of Ravka’s most powerful Grisha. The series also features the upstart criminal elements from Ketterdam, the Kerch capital — including the Crows. Kaz is their shrewd leader, who uses his boundless illicit know-how to obscure any questions about his painful past.
Kaz is never seen without his trusty cane and black leather gloves. While Carter can’t spoil too much about Shadow and Bone Season 2, he does tease that there’s a surprise in Episode 7 that fans of the Six of Crows book duology— which follows the thieving gang — will find “really fun.”
Carter’s first star turn came in the British Netflix series Free Rein and its two spin-off films. He’s also appeared in Batman prequel Pennyworth and Jenna Ortega-led American Carnage.
You can follow Carter on Instagram and Twitter.
Some would say Inej is the kind of character who deserves to be protected at all costs. Yet, she’s proven she can protect herself more times than anyone can count. Inej is of Suli heritage and was raised in a family of acrobats. She was then kidnapped and forced to work in the Menagerie.
Inej is now known as the Wraith and serves as the Crows’ expert knife wielder and spy. Unlike her friends, Inej has deep respect for the Grisha Saints and will do anything for Alina. Despite her loyalties to the Crows and the Sun Summoner, Suman reminds Tudum that Inej is also dedicated to “saving her rightful family.” Inej’s brother was abducted into slavery as well; she remains desperate to find him.
Beyond Shadow and Bone, you can find Suman in episodes of other fantasy series, including The Sandman, The Outpost and Doctor Who.
You can follow Suman on Instagram.
No one in Shadow and Bone rocks a jaunty suit and chapeau quite like Jesper. He’s the Crows’ gunslinger, gambler and all-around good-time guy. Although Kaz may be a nearly impossible person to get to know, Jesper’s allegiance to him, and the Crows, runs true.
Young hints that Jesper’s emotional world may be expanding in Season 2. “In Season 1, we had this trio dynamic and that was lots of fun. But I was third wheeling,” Young jokes to Tudum, gesturing to co-stars Carter and Suman. “The way in which Jesper communicates has many more layers to it this season.”
Beyond Shadow and Bone, Young has gotten to show off his fighting skills in The School for Good and Evil, in which he played battling twins Rafal and Rhian.
You can follow Young on Instagram and Twitter.
You know what comes in handy during a heist? Someone with the power to monitor heartbeats and control internal organs. Enter Nina, who joins the Crows in Season 2. Previously a Second Army spy, Nina is desperate to save her star-crossed lover Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman) from his recent imprisonment.
“I think she’s still very much Nina that we know and love from Season 1,” Galligan tells Tudum. “But the power of her love for Matthias is driving her to put herself in all these risky situations.”
Before stealing hearts in Shadow and Bone, Galligan appeared in historical dramedy The Great and fantasy epic Game of Thrones.
You can follow Galligan on Instagram.
We said “star-crossed” — Matthias comes from Fjerda, a nation that hates Grisha and has been at war with Ravka for years. Yet Matthias’ unexpected love affair with Nina forces him to rethink all of his beliefs — except his reverence for wolves.
In Season 2, Matthias finds himself in a vicious prison. “His youth is pretty much all together gone. He becomes a young man in Season 2,” Skogman tells Tudum. “There was a softer nature to him in Season 1. You can see it in his scenes with Nina. Going to prison and having that kind of heartbreak… forces him into this new realm of depth and darkness.”
Shadow and Bone is Skogman’s first major project.
You can follow Skogman on Instagram and TikTok.
Nina isn’t the only new face to join the Crows in Season 2. Say hello to Wylan, a chemist and demolition pro who also happens to catch the eye of a certain other co-conspirator.
“There’s a really interesting thing in playing Wylan a little bit older than he is in the book. That affects the speed of certain things,” Wolfe says. “One of the producers asked me what I would’ve liked to have seen as a young queer person from a fantasy show, so I was able to express that.”
Wolfe is particularly pleased his on-screen romance is “super playful and really safe.” Although Wolfe is just stepping into the Shadow and Bone universe, he’s no stranger to Netflix magic. He previously appeared in The Witcher Season 1.
You can follow Wolfe on Instagram and Twitter.
Prince of Ravka, Sobachka and, to some, Sturmhond the privateer, Nikolai is a man of many names, and there’s much more to this cheeky privateer than meets the eye.
Gibson likens his character to Aladdin’s Princess Jasmine — he’s a royal who’s far more intrigued by the lives of his people than stuffy court intrigue. “I had this idea that as a young kid, he would sometimes sneak off and go on these adventures in the city and observe,” the Irish actor says. “He enjoyed real life that he didn’t get to experience [until he became Sturmhond].”
Gibson comes to Shadow and Bone after an unforgettable turn in The OA as Steve Winchell. He also has years of experience dealing with on-screen royal drama in The Tudors, The White Princess and its follow-up The Spanish Princess.
You can follow Gibson on Instagram and Twitter.
This blunt, powerful Grisha instructor doesn’t sugarcoat anything as she teaches her pupils to do whatever it takes to survive. Baghra herself is a Shadow Summoner. And did we mention that she’s also General Kirigan’s mother?
Olivier Award–winning and Tony-nominated theater star Wanamaker has had her hand in practically every screen genre: sitcom (My Family), fantasy (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), sci-fi (Doctor Who), historical fiction (My Week with Marilyn), mystery (Agatha Christie’s Poirot) and drama (Prime Suspect, which earned her a BAFTA nomination). She’s been named Honorary President of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
You can follow Wanamaker on Twitter.
As elegant as she is sharp-witted, this talented Grisha tailor was Alina’s confidant in Season 1 and now finds herself in the ranks of Kirigan’s army.
Head has plenty of British TV on her résumé, and was introduced to American audiences as a college student whose roommate is murdered in the series Guilt. She’s also appeared in Harlots, Girlfriends, an episode of The Sandman and films including Wrong Turn, Underworld: Blood Wars and Fallen, as well as this year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
The brilliant David ranks high in General Kirigan’s army, although he is troubled by the things he’s tasked to do in service of the Darkling. He and Genya grow close.
While some will remember Pasqualino as teen Freddie in Skins, others will recognize his adult turns as d’Artagnan in The Musketeers or from his many other TV roles (The Borgias, Our Girl, Snatch, Shantaram).
You can follow Pasqualino on Instagram.
Two members of the Sturmhond’s crew. Tamar is a warrior who refers to her two axes as “her girls,” while Tolya’s weapon of choice is the katana (but he also has a soft spot for food and poetry).
Tan is quick to stress that Toyla’s passion for snacks isn’t just for laughs — it also illustrates his consistent calm in stressful situations. “I wanted to add a levity to the character physically that represents that harmonious, monk state that he’s always in. In almost every scene, except for really intense action scenes, I’m eating something,” he tells Tudum.
Leong Brophy is a comedian, actor and podcaster with credits including EastEnders, Back and Code 404. She tells Tudum that she welcomed Tamar’s “single-minded” attitude into her own life, telling herself “I have magic. I know I’m on the right path.”
Tan is a stunt performer and an action movie and TV veteran, having appeared in Mortal Kombat, Deadpool 2, Wu Assassins and Into the Badlands. And don’t forget his brief appearance in the sixth episode of Bling Empire Season 3.
You can follow Leong Brophy on Twitter and Instagram, and follow Tan on Twitter and Instagram.
Once one of General Kirigan’s most trusted Grisha soldiers and Alina’s biggest antagonist, the proud, competitive Zoya aligned herself with the Sun Summoner once she learned of Kirigan’s plan to expand the Shadow Fold into her family’s city of Novokribirsk.
After starring alongside co-star Head in the drama Guilt, Dasgupta has appeared in TV series including Casualty, I May Destroy You, Ghosts and Shantaram.
You can follow Dasgupta on Instagram.
Kaz’s arch nemesis is the head of Ketterdam’s Dime Lions gang, and has seized control of the Crow Club.
Best known as next-door neighbor Kev in the original Shameless, Lennox Kelly has recently appeared in historical series Jamestown, drama series Frankie and comedy film Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.
Joanna McGibbon as Nadia Zhabin (left) and Anna Leong Brophy as Kir-Bataar (right) in Season 2 of Shadow and Bone.
Nadia is a Grisha, who is part of the Sturmhond’s crew and grows close with Tamar Kir-Bataar.
This is British actor McGibbon’s first major role.
Follow McGibbon on Instagram.
Vasily is the heir to the throne of Ravka.
Parker has appeared on episodes of Pennyworth and Doctors.
Follow Parker on Instagram.
The Apparat is the religious adviser to the king of Ravka, but… how do we put this? His vibes are off. Much more eerie than godly. His vaguely nefarious presence hints at the fact that he has his own aims.
British comedy veteran Eldon (Fist of Fun, The Sunday Show, Brass Eye, Big Train, Hot Fuzz, Four Lions) has appeared in films including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Hugo, and recent series including The Last Kingdom, Game of Thrones and Criminal: UK.
Follow Eldon on Twitter.
