Exclusive Interview
Ben Barnes Reflects on ‘Shadow and Bone,’ His Rom-Com Hopes, & More (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Ben Barnes reflected on his experience playing the Darkling in Netflix’s Shadow and Bone adaptation.
- The actor revealed what would’ve happened in a third season.
- After playing a number of darker roles, Barnes explained if he’s interested in pursuing rom-com roles.
From The Chronicles of Narnia to Dorian Gray, Ben Barnes knows his way around a book-to-screen adaptation. In fact, he’s currently working on the TV show version of Stephen King‘s The Institute. But if you were reading the YA genre in the 2010s like us, you might know him best from Netflix’s Shadow and Bone series.
It’s been a little over five years since Shadow and Bone, which is based on Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books, aired its first season, and a little over three years since it ended with its second season. At Creation Entertainment‘s Page, Screen, and Everything in Between convention on May 9, Barnes reflected on playing the Darkling in Shadow and Bone, what would’ve happened if the show had continued, and his thoughts on doing a rom-com.
Looking back at Shadow and Bone, the moment from shooting that’s stuck with Barnes the most is when the Darkling meets Alina (Jessie Mei Li) in the tent at the start of Season 1. “I remember rereading that chapter in the car on the way to work that day, and I’d filmed some other scenes, but not very many at that point, but I just remember walking into the tent and having Jessie Mei Li standing there and telling everyone to be quiet in the scene,” he recalled.
Barnes remembers thinking that the moment felt exactly like it did in his head while reading the book. “I’ve done quite a lot of book-to-screen adaptations, and that one peeks out as feeling very visceral in terms of actual adaptation,” he said. “I remember actually calling the author at the end of the day and saying it felt really like the book, and I think you’re gonna be pleased with it, and she was.”
Dávid Lukács/Netflix
While his character met his end in the Season 2 finale — Barnes confirmed the Darkling is “very dead” even in the show’s magical world — the actor knew that there were plans for another season before it was cancelled. It would’ve been focused on the Crows (Freddy Carter, Amita Suman, Kit Young, Danielle Galligan, Calahan Skogman, and Jack Wolfe), who got their own side plots throughout the first two seasons. They have their own separate duology in Bardugo’s Grishaverse.
“I was aware that they were working on a Six of Crows adaptation, which were my favorite of the books,” Barnes said. “I love heists. I was just sad for the actors that were playing those parts, that they never saw it through.”
The actor has also stayed in touch with his former castmates, with whom he formed “quite tight bonds” on set. “There’s at least five or six — no, at least seven of them that I’m actually quite close with,” he said. “Usually after I do a film or a show, I’ve found that in general you’re usually able to keep one friend from each job, because otherwise you just don’t have enough oxygen in your friendship circle, but with Shadow and Bone, I’m still quite close with a handful of them.”
Barnes feels like his time Darkling is over, even if the show were to be revived in some way, shape, or form. However, Barnes said, “I’m not really a director, but I’d quite like to direct a Six of Crows adaptation or something like that, you know? I want to watch it, really is what I mean. I just want to watch it.”
As Shadow and Bone fans know, the Darkling and Alina’s relationship was never a true romance, what with the former’s villainous intentions. From Westworld to The Punisher, Barnes has played quite a few darker or downright immoral characters recently, but he is interested in rom-com roles, especially having grown up in the 80s.
“I think I’ve had quite a lot of experience now in playing characters that manipulate or mask or hide the truth or have alternative agendas, and I really enjoyed it, and I think I learned an awful lot,” he said. But I think yeah, [playing] characters you’re rooting for is something that I’m trying to prioritize.”
“I’ve always loved big sweeping kind of romances, like Atonement,” he continued when we asked if there are any romance movies or projects he wished he’d been a part of. “But I also love Notting Hill and When Harry Met Sally, and lots of rom-coms like that. I don’t think anyone should touch any of those things. We don’t need to remake everything, but I’m hoping there’s some more fresh writing out there that’s in one of those two lanes.”
