If the COVID-19 pandemic gave me anything, it gave me Zoom. Since I was in college when the world went online, I have had access to Zoom meetings longer than 45 minutes without the fear of having my credit card information stolen.

On September 22, 2021, I used my university provided (though now somewhat infrequently used) Zoom subscription to attend the PEN/Faulkner Foundation event Literature on Screen: Shadow and Bone.

This evening, part of the foundation’s Literary Conversations series, featured Leigh Bardugo, author of the fantasy series Shadow and Bone and duology Six of Crows. These books, all set in Bardugo’s fictional world the “Grishaverse,” were adapted into the Netflix series Shadow and Bone, which aired in the spring of 2021 and has been renewed for a second season.

Thanks to Zoom and a promotional link from Eventbrite, I got to attend Bardugo’s interview wherein she discussed the nature and process of adaptation from book to television, her own writing, and future projects.

Leigh came on the screen at 7. I almost wept. I definitely took a picture and posted it to my Instagram story.

Beyond a touch of opening banter between host Petra Mayer and Bardugo, the evening began with a viewing of a scene from the series: where Alina’s power is revealed by General Kirigin.

Once the screen-sharing was over, Bardugo and Mayer discussed how this scene came to be. Bardugo explained that this scene actually had to be reedited and parts reshot to improve the flow of the script. Though having this change was something Bardugo described as “a shift in the script that I think worked quite beautifully,” she also highlighted that these highly specific logistics are the parts of television production that are “not that sexy.”

The downside of online programming revealed itself as I could not hear anyone else laughing at that joke besides myself alone in my bedroom. 

Bardugo and Mayer used this scene as a jumping off point to examine the artistic relationship between a piece of literature and its adaptation.

As it turns out, Bardugo was involved in many aspects of the show’s production, which definitely lent credence and consistency to the narrative, especially in relation to her books. But she was also more than willing to acknowledge the different possibilities that were open to her world and her stories when told through a visual medium. Shadow and Bone, the novel, is told entirely from Alina’s perspective. In the show, the audience gets the perspectives of multiple characters, which Bardugo praised for being “able to produce a lot more texture in the world.”

This narrative change was definitely necessitated, to a degree, by the interweaving of the two different book series. Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone may take place in the same universe, but happen years apart and in different countries. By bringing these two sets of characters into one story, the writing and production teams had to get creative and take artistic license, one of the touchstones of adaptation.

Bardugo spoke about the process of adapting her books with the greatest geniality and positivity. She recounted her first meeting with Eric Heisser, later showrunner for Shadow and Bone, in the language of kismet. Heisser had an entire pitch ready to go about bringing the two series together, but Bardugo was a yes from the start. 

Of course, at the beginning of the process, there were concerns about adapting the novels, especially in the merging of the two plots into one.

“You cannot Frankenstein these plots,” Bardugo stated. There were many obstacles that had to be overcome in naturally bringing two book series together, from the writers creating a new plot for the Crows (the rough-and-tumble gang from the Six of Crows duology) and figuring out how to set up introductions for a much larger cast of characters. 

Bardugo also had to deal with the process of letting go of her own characters; there was a fear that there would be a “narrowing” of what she had written and intended. She was also concerned for the imaginative power of the reader: “the alchemy that happens in a reader’s head was going to be defeated” by having the characters physically present. However, once Bardugo saw all the characters on screen together, her fears evaporated.

The casting of the show has been highly praised, likely because Bardugo had some input in the process. She emphasized that the “spirit of the story is essential,” and that “you cast for the show, you don’t cast for the poster.” However, she was pleased by the fact that many of the castings matched “headcannons” and that Amita Suman, who plays Inej Ghafa, was a perfect visual fit.

Bardugo also addressed some of the critiques that came with the show. Alina, in the show, was depicted as half-Shu, the Asian counterpart in this fantasy world. Though this choice was a move toward more diversity, as Leigh herself admitted that her original trilogy was “very white, very straight,” there was still a desire for more examination of what it means for Alina to be in a marginalized racial category. Bardugo was straightforward: “You do your best, fuck up sometimes, and try to do better.”

She also talked about a change in the adaptation that hit many fans hard: the loss of the significance of a name. In the original trilogy, Kirigin is not the name of the Grisha general; he is only referred to as “The Darkling.” Eventually, Alina learns his true name and this revelation carries huge weight. However, in the show, the moment comes early and is understated. Bardugo admitted that this change was “a little bit of a fight,” because it sacrificed the vulnerability of giving up one’s name to another person (ow). But it was ultimately a choice she agreed to for the sake of clarity and to include audiences who hadn’t read the books.

Though the conversation about the reality of adapting books to television was fascinating, as an immense fan of all of Bardugo’s work, I was particularly excited when she touched on the future and her other work.

Bardugo definitely has a penchant for comedy; when asked for details on Season 2 she claimed she must be silent out of fear of “Netflix assassins.” However, she immediately divulged that, “Yeah, there’s a good chance you’re gonna see Sturmhond” next season, confirming the inclusion of a series favorite. Of course, she’d already sent that information out via her newsletter, an act for which she apologized to Netflix with a bemused and indulgent grimace.

The author also disclosed that next season will definitely be diverging from the books more as the show takes on a life of its own, and that she has to come to a certain point of saying, “Yeah, this doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

However, fans will be excited to know that there have always been plans for the Crows to receive greater attention, particularly to their intricate and psychologically complex backgrounds. Bardugo explained that the approach was to “excavate parts of the Crows backstory but [leave] plenty of runway ahead of us if we got a second season and beyond.”

The conversation also touched on the reality of Bardugo’s growth as a writer. The love interest Mal is often negatively perceived by fans of the Shadow and Bone books, but received far more positive reactions from the show. Bardugo explained that he was a character that she wrote in her first ever novel; he was meant to be incredibly “teenage boy” who was supposed to be “infinitely loyal; infinitely ferocious.” She wanted that to come through in the book but said that maybe she wasn’t good enough to achieve it at the time.

“I’m glad I’m getting better,” she explained, and joked that she’s happy she didn’t peak with her first book.

There was also exclusive information revealed about the future of her Adult Fantasy novel Ninth House. The book, the sequel of which she is currently writing, is also set to be adapted, and she has already written the pilot. This made my heart stop beating in my chest as I believe Ninth House to be one of the best novels ever written.

Lastly, Bardugo answered a question about the future of the Grishaverse, which had nominally ended with the release of her novel Rule of Wolves in 2021. She revealed that while writing that novel she had every intention of writing a third Six of Crows book, but at this point she doesn’t want to. However, she has left the door wide open for if that feeling ever changes (maybe in a year), and said it would be best to call it a “goodbye for now.”

This evening was filled with countless nuggets of information that shocked my system as a Grishaverse superfan—including Leigh’s favorite episode, the appearance of the Ravkan edition of Shadow and Bone, and the fact that her dog was going to dress up as Milo the Goat for Halloween—but I cannot include every word she said (though I want to). My fingers could not transcribe all those quotes and I don’t think it’s morally upright to just upload my harried transcript of the event.

More than anything, the event enlightened me to the process of adapting novels to the screen. Every choice is debated so that the most is achieved for the greatest audience. The decisions are never easy or unemotional, even when they are phenomenal. It also taught me that as a viewer, no matter how much I want to nitpick the adaptation, I need to appreciate that it exists at all, and it ended up being, in Leigh’s mind and my own, the Grishaverse “in all its glory.”

November 2021