Onward to Ravka, my dear Grisha. We couldn’t be more excited that the TV adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s unforgettable Shadow and Bone trilogy is magicking its way onto Netflix this Friday, April 23rd. It’s finally time to see Alina, Mal, Genya, Zoya, the Darkling, and many others of our favorite Grishaverse characters take their rightful place on screen. As we prepare to enter the Shadow Fold this weekend, here are the top 5 things that we can’t wait to see in the Netflix adaptation!

Grisha magic

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The Grisha fall into three categories of magical powers: Corporalki (whose powers focus on the human body), Etherealki (who can control natural elements like water, wind, and fire), and Materialki (who can manipulate artificial materials like glass, steel, chemicals, and poisons). For example, Alina is a Etherealki since she can control light as a Sun Summoner. We can’t wait to see how all of these Grisha powers come to life in live action!

Friends to lovers

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Friends to lovers is one of our favorite romantic tropes. If you’ve read the books, you’ll know that Alina and Mal grew up together in an orphanage and develop a connection that goes deeper than friendship. Hopefully Mal is less of a jerk to Alina than he is in the books, but we’re eager to see how Malina (yes, that’s their ship name) develops.

Our crow children

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Even though the Shadow and Bone trilogy books take place two years before the Six of Crows Duology, many of the cast of the latter duology are showing up in the Netflix adaptation: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey, Nina Zenik, and Matthias Helvar. We can’t wait to see the prequel stories that the Netflix adaptation has created for them, especially since (fingers crossed) this might pave the way for us to one day see the Six of Crows Duology come to life on screen as well.

Side note: Leigh Bardugo has said that Prince Nikolai won’t show up in the first season of Shadow and Bone, so here’s hoping we’ll get to see him in future seasons of the show if it gets renewed for more!

Genya and Zoya

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This is not-so-subtly an appreciation post for Genya Safin and Zoya Nazyalensky, two of our favorite Grisha whom Alina befriends (well… “frenemizes,” in Zoya’s case). That is all.

“Fine. Make me your villain.”

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We won’t spoil any plot points for anyone who hasn’t read the books, so all we’ll say is there’s ultimately a BIG revelation about who the true villain of Shadow and Bone is. If you want to prepare to see that EPIC plot twist on screen, you can tide yourself over with other fantasy books like House of Hollow (start reading an excerpt here!).

Want to see what other book-to-TV adaptations we’re excited for? Here’s why we’re looking forward to the TV series for They Wish They Were Us and The Wrath and the Dawn!