Shadow & Bone Season 3 Could Arrive Sooner Than Last Time

Two years after its well-received debut on Netflix, Shadow and Bone Season 2 finally arrived on March 16. Given how quickly fans devoured the first season (it had one of the longest No. 1 streaming streaks at the time of its release, Forbes reports), you definitely aren’t alone if you watched the latest installment super quickly. And it probably left you wondering if there will be a Shadow and Bone Season 3.

The show was developed for Netflix by Eric Heisserer and based on Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels — and according to the showrunner, there’s much more to come. Though he told Collider the adaptation was originally conceived as a “three-season plan,” he also voiced to Variety that “this is absolutely a show that can go more than three seasons.” In fact, Heisserer even floated the idea of future iterations of Bardugo’s source material. “If I have to reframe it for Netflix to say, ‘You can still shut this down at three seasons, but we’re continuing with this other spinoff — whatever you want to call it — it still has legs.’”

First things first, of course. Here’s everything to know about a potential Shadow and Bone Season 3, which hasn’t been confirmed by Netflix yet.

Shadow & Bone Season 3 Cast

While the official Shadow and Bone Season 3 cast won’t be announced for some time, here’s a refresher of everyone who starred in Season 2: Jessie Mei Li (Alina Starkov), Archie Renaux (Malyen Oretsev), Freddy Carter (Kaz Brekker), Amita Suman (Inej Ghafa), Kit Young (Jesper Fahey), Danielle Galligan (Nina Zenik), Daisy Head (Genya Safin), Calahan Skogman (Matthias Helvar), Lewis Tan (Tolya Yul-Bataar), Anna Leong Brophy (Tamar Kir-Bataar), Jack Wolfe (Wylan Hendriks), Patrick Gibson (Nikolai Lantsov), and Ben Barnes (General Kirigan).

Shadow & Bone Season 3 Plot

Wondering what will happen in Shadow and Bone Season 3? Now might be the time to pick up Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series, if you haven’t already. Netflix has the rights to both series and to Bardugo’s short stories, The Language of Thorns, per Variety — so you’ll want to be on the lookout for elements from the entire creative universe.

As Heisserer told the outlet, he was asked to develop the books for TV after Bardugo learned he was a fan on Twitter. “I devoured it,” he said. “I absolutely love the world, and the characters and just the vibrancy of it all.”

Shadow & Bone Season 3 Potential Premiere Date

If it’s renewed, when will Shadow and Bone Season 3 come out? The gap between the first two seasons was nearly two years, similar to how long other Netflix fantasy shows (think Stranger Things or The Witcher) took to return with new installments. Granted, the series is tasked with adapting two pieces of source material. As Bardugo told Variety, “It did take some creative thinking to figure out the mechanism by which we were going to bring these two stories together.”

Season 1 wrapped production in February 2020, per the show’s Twitter, and premiered just over a year later. Season 2 wrapped in June and premiered nine months later — so if the pattern is any indication for next time, you can likely expect a shorter wait for Shadow and Bone Season 3, depending on if or when it’s renewed.

This post will be updated with the trailer, release date, and additional plot details as more information on Shadow and Bone Season 3 becomes available.