Shadow and Bone follows young mapmaker Alina as she discovers her ability to summon sunlight capable of blasting away a literal, tangible darkness that divides the kingdom. With her debut novel, Bardugo wanted to step away from the typical medieval England setting so commonly seen in fantasy novels and chose Imperial Russia as inspiration for her world, Ravka. But while the setting itself bypassed the usual conventions, she leaned on a narrow worldview to populate the saga.
“I was really echoing a lot of the fantasies I’d grown up with, which were very white, very straight sort of traditional Chosen One stories,” Bardugo tells Polygon.
First Shadow and Bone photos bring the Grishaverse to life
The YA adaptation hits Netflix in April
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The first photos of
Shadow and Bone, Netflix’s adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s best-selling Grishaverse books, reveal the main cast in action as well as a glimpse of the fantasy world.
“Think Imperial Russia, not Medieval England, repeating rifles instead of broadswords,” said Bardugo, who also serves as executive producer.
The first set of books centers on Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), an orphaned mapmaker unaware of her own great power. The land of Ravka is torn in half by the Shadow Fold, a supernatural barrier of tangible darkness, which is slowly destroying the country’s economy and society. Alina, along with her best friend Mal (Archie Renaux), are members of a dispensable army that the Ravkan government sends through the Fold.