Netflix's fantasy series Shadow and Bone stands out among book-to-screen adaptations for successfully weaving in characters from a spin-off series well before they appear in the original novels, according to a feature by Collider. The show combines Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy with her Six of Crows spin-off, introducing the "Crows" characters far earlier than in the books and expanding the cast by six additional leads, a change that could easily have backfired with devoted fans but is widely regarded as a creative success.

In the books, the Crows—based in the port city of Ketterdam—don't appear until after the main trilogy's war has ended, so the Netflix adaptation invented new storylines to bring them in sooner. In Season 1, Kaz, Inej and Jesper are given a heist-style mission to kidnap protagonist Alina, while Nina and Matthias meet through a separate romance plot; by Season 2, the two groups' stories converge as the Crows help Alina search for a mythical blade and join her fight against the Darkling. The changes allow the series to showcase the scale of Bardugo's fantasy world and turn the Crows into a highlight of the show, even though it never adapts their strongest storyline from the original books.