Shadow and Bone: Netflix share new trailer for the fantasy epic

Netflix has revealed a brand new trailer for their fantasy epic Shadow and Bone. 

The streaming service shared a closer look at the highly-anticipated show on Tuesday, teasing an epic battle to find Ravka’s first Sun Summoner, Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li).

Opening on an incredibly dramatic moment, it shows a man running for his life in the Shadow Fold, a swath of darkness full of terrifying creatures, and away from the skiff where Alina and her best friend Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux) are.

Alina and her fellow First Army soldiers are attacked by Volcra, dark, horrifying beings that are only interested in feeding on whoever dares try and make the crossing to Novokribirsk. 

One such creature attacks Mal and tries to take him off the ship, and as Alina calls out his name a blaze of light is seen, and the runaway is heard telling a Grisha Heartrender after the fact: ‘You won’t believe me but it was a Sun Summoner.’

Safely back in the town of Kribirsk after the attack, Alina is taken to The Darkling, also known as General Kirigan and played by Ben Barnes, where he questions if she can ‘summon light’ like eyewitnesses claim.

Seemingly aware of the dormant power that lies within Alina, even if she does not, Kirigan steps up to her and cuts her skin, releasing a blinding flash of light to reveal she is, in fact, a Sun Summoner.

Alina’s power makes her a rare class of Grisha who can bend and summon light – the opposite to The Darkling’s ability as a Shadow Summoner.

Taking her with him to The Little Palace, the residence he set up for Ravka’s Second Army of Grisha, he tells her: ‘Our enemies are threatened by your mere existence. The whole world will be after you.’

Proving this to be true, members of The Dregs, a criminal gang from Ketterdam, Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter), Jesper Fahey (Kit Young), and Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman) hatch a plot to find Alina when a One Million Kruger bounty is put out on her.

Giving a glimpse at the fan-favourite characters, Jesper is seen gambling before the sharpshooter tosses a coin and shoots it mid-air, while Inej takes out one of her many knives, and Kaz assembles to team for the mission.

Unsure about her current circumstances, Alina asks Kirigan if she is ‘a prisoner’ but he simply tells her: ‘All of Ravka is, until you and I enter the Fold and destroy it from within.’

Alina and The Darkling are then seen going to the Ravkan court in the Grand Palace, where she looks around at everyone watching her and claims: ‘Everyone is looking at me like I’m the answer.’

She clearly struggles as pressure mounts on her, and her lessons with Baghra (Zoe Wanamaker) to try and control her abilities see her practising again and again, with her tutor hitting her with a cane whenever she gets it wrong.

But Kirigan is keen to reassure her, as he gently cradles her head and says: ‘The only thing more powerful than you and me, the two of us together.’ 

Fully embracing her powers, Alina then summons a small sun in her hands as Baghra tells her: ‘Good girl, now the work begins.’

The trailer then shows various scenes of Alina with Mal, with him telling her that he’ll ‘find [his] way back to [her]’ no matter what happens to them along the way.

Kirigan’s ancestor The Black Heretic is also shown creating the fold briefly, before the trailer cuts to Kaz asking Jesper ‘how many bullets do you have?’ as he hits back ‘not enough’ during a fight.

Several battle scenes are shown, including ones with Etherealki, Grisha who can control different natural elements, fighting with fire.

Taking a dramatic note, The Dakling is heard saying of Alina: ‘She’ll realise she has only one equal, there are no others like us and there never will be.’

The Apparat, the religious advisory to the Ravkan king played by Kevin Eldon, then tells Alina: ‘You have no idea how much larger a role you have to play.’  

She is then shown coming across Morozova’s stag, an ancient creature whose bones can be used as an amplifier for her abilities, and as she touches its muzzle her powers come forth, stronger than ever. 

The trailer ends with a glimpse at several intense moments, including Alina using her powers within the Fold.         

The series will see Alina join the Second Army and The Darkling after he requests her help to destroy the Fold, as he believes she is the only one capable of stopping it. 

The Grisha are humans who practice what’s known as the Small Science in the show, they can manipulate matter according to their order which includes summoning the elements or having healing powers. 

Shadow and Bone is based on Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, and it takes its name from -and is based predominantly on- the book of the same name, which is the first in a trilogy.

Kaz, Jesper and Inej, and characters who didn’t feature in the trailer but are in the show, Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) and Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), first appeared in the Six Of Crows duology.

The two books are set after the events of Bardugo’s trilogy, so the show sees the characters embark on a different storyline to what fans of the novels might expect.

Shadow and Bone will be released globally on Netflix on April 23, 2021.