And in one efficient move, by casting someone already loved by the book community ever since his role in Narnia’s Prince Caspian, and who had already been fancast as the Darkling across the internet, Netflix’s Shadow & Bone adaptation was off to a stellar start. And Ben Barnes was an unlikely wish, so much of the fandom had no clue what to expect.Įxcept. Sean O’Pry had the face and the Darkling’s cold quartz eyes, but he was a model rather than an actor. One of the fandom’s favourite fancasts was model Sean O’Pry (who had excellent Darkling vibes in Taylor Swift’s music video Blank Space), and another popular contender was actor Ben Barnes. The Darkling (or General Kirigan, as he’s known in the show) was set to be the biggest challenge: finding someone who’s hot but feels immortal, and can effectively demonstrate calculating wisdom? It’s a daunting task, and there’s pressure of fan expectations on top of that. The first hurdle any book-to-screen adaption comes across is casting, and it’s here that Shadow & Bone pole-vaults the hurdle. But the show runner, Eric Heisserer, has made his respect for the fandom clear. Whilst Shadow & Bone is meant to capture a wide audience across ages, the core focus remains the young adult audience the books were released to rather than the older audiences Game of Thrones and The Witcher cater for.Īs with any YA adaptation, Shadow & Bone comes equipped with a passionate fanbase that some critics choose to deride. In fact, it’s slightly futile to compare every new fantasy show to Game of Thrones it is pitting new and untested shows against a cultural behemoth, and it only hinders the success of getting new fantasy shows out there when everyone tries to measure them up against a multi-million dollar production. Some critics are saying Shadow & Bone is Netflix’s newest attempt to recapture the popularity of Game of Thrones, but I’d point to Netflix’s other fantasy series The Witcher for that. And now the show is out, I can see it’s one made with care, love and respect. When an adaption was announced I was excited but wary, knowing how adaptations had turned out in the past – but when the trailers began releasing, I swayed more and more to quietly hopeful. Unsurprisingly, I’m very attached to the books. I’ve loved Shadow & Bone and the Grishaverse for a really long time – since the first book came out in 2012, to be exact.
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