Shadow and Bone follows a young soldier becoming the target of sinister forces when she reveals to the world a magical power that can reunite one and all.
A high fantasy affair, Netflix’s Shadow and Moon has all the essential elements the genre has to proffer. There are underdog heroes going up against absurdly more powerful forces in a quest that, initially unbeknownst to them, will change the course of history and alter the world.
There are villains with a grim past that turned them from innocent optimists to a force for bad, there are romantic assassins, and there are monsters, a lot of them. What’s also there is a sense of dread and a sense of hope that pervades a story encapsulating grandeur, both in scale and themes.
Here are 10 other fantasy shows based on a book similar to Shadow and Bone, available on Netflix, Prime Video & more:
1. The Witcher (2019 – Present)
Cast: Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan, Eamon Farren, Joey Batey, MyAnna Buring, Mimî M. Khayisa, Anna Shaffer, Royce Pierreson, Wilson Mbomio, Mahesh Jadu, Tom Canton, Mecia Simson, Kim Bodnia
Available on: Netflix
Geralt is a Witcher — a name referring to the mutated men who wield monstrous strength and potions that boost their strength even more for brief periods of time. They hunt monsters and are exceptional at it.
Geralt hunts them too, but his world is rife with humans often way more diabolical than the monsters. The plot entails Geralt of Rivia being inadvertently tied by destiny to the crown Princess of Cintra, Ciri.
While the two set off on their paths that must inevitably cross, the sorceress Yennefer of Vengaberg also becomes a prominent part of this destiny while embarking on missions of her own.
With grand political unrest in the backdrop, these three must work their way through monsters and entities, and grimmer men of malice and monstrosity to keep an impending doom from taking over the world.
2. His Dark Materials (2019 – 2023)
Cast: Dafne Keen, Amir Wilson, Ruth Wilson, Will Keen, James McAvoy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ruta Gedmintas, Jade Anouka, Simone Kirby, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jamie Ward, Lewin Lloyd, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Simon Harrison, Amber Fitzgerald-Woolfe, Chipo Chung, Sian Clifford, Jonathan Aris, Kit Connor, David Suchet, Joe Tandberg, Sope Dirisu, Lindsay Duncan, Andrew Scott
Available on: HBO Max
Telling a story that spans multiple worlds, His Dark Materials follows Lyra, a girl living in an alternate world, at Oxford with old scholars. When her best friend goes missing, she must leave the place to embark on a mission of finding her friend.
Lyra is no ordinary girl, for she is the protagonist of a prophecy that foretells world-changing events being brought about by her. In her mission to find her missing friend, she meets Will Parry, a boy from a conventional world who’s also being chased by mystical figures from Lyra’s world.
Meanwhile, Lyra’s father and mother, both wielding notoriety of epic proportions, is also at the center of events linked with supreme forces of myth and science, religious and political entities, and countless innocent lives.
Although not strictly a work of fantasy, as there’s a lot of sci-fi pedigree here, His Dark Materials has a couple of similarities it shares with Shadow and Bone.
3. Game of Thrones (2011 – 2019)
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, John Bradley, Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill, Liam Cunningham, Gwendoline Christie
Available on: HBO Max
A classic fantasy series, Game of Thrones is based on a series of fantasy novels by J.R.R. Martin. The eight-season-long series follows many storylines and subplots, all of which revolve in and around the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
At the center of it all is the mighty iron throne, for which one too many souls have bled and many atrocities have been wreaked.
There are noble families who want independence from the aforementioned throne and their struggles give rise to one of the prominent arcs in the show. Then there’s the scion who must overcome exile to reclaim the throne.
And there’s another threat in the mythical, monstrous creatures known as the peoples of the North, who pose a great threat to the kingdoms. Like Alina in Shadow and Bone, there are several underdogs one can observe in Game of Thrones who find themselves amidst world-changing events and forces most perilous and sinister.
4. Lockwood & Co. (2022 – Present)
Cast: Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman, Ali Hadji-Heshmati, Ivanno Jeremiah, Jack Bandeira, Rhianna Dorris, Paddy Holland, Rico Vina, Bronwyn James, Louise Brealey
Available on: Netflix
Lucy is an extremely gifted psychic who joins Anthony Lockwood and George Karim, two friends who run the titular ghost-hunting agency.
Together, the three must work to unravel a great mystery that can change the course of history. However, it’s not just the regular paranormal that they must contend with, but far more perilous forces stand in their way as they work to uncover a giant conspiracy.
Though rife with all sorts of preternatural stuff, the plot central to the show involves a mystery that the main character must work to peel the layers off of as the story progresses.
While not exactly a doppelganger, this series features protagonists like in Shadow and Bone — the underdogs working and making their mark on a world rife with powerful people while a big mystery looms large over all their heads.
5. The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022)
Cast: Sophia Brown, Laurence O’Fuarain, Mirren Mack, Lenny Henry, Jacob Collins-Levy, Joey Batey, Zach Wyatt, Lizzie Annis, Huw Novelli, Francesca Mills, Amy Murray, Minnie Driver, Michelle Yeoh, Dylan Moran
Available on: Netflix
Serving as a prequel to The Witcher, this series is set a thousand years before the events of the successor. The events here concern the creation of the first-ever Witcher as well as the “Conjugation of the Spheres.”
There are seven outcasts that hail from different parts of the world. They must come together and join hands against the forces of Xin’trea — a legendary Elven civilization that once was.
Geralt of Rivia’s bard friend, Jaskier is saved from the war by the mysterious Seanchai to preserve the legend of these seven outcasts who wage war against the Xin’trean might. Much like The Witcher, this prequel series shares some broader thematic similarities as well as fantasy elements with Shadow and Bone as well.
6. Cursed (2020)
Cast: Katherine Langford, Devon Terrell, Gustaf Skarsgård, Daniel Sharman, Sebastian Armesto, Lily Newmark, Peter Mullan, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Bella Dayne, Matt Stokoe
Available on: Netflix
Based on the illustrated novel of the same name by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler, this series is a reimagining of an Arthurian legend. At the center of this story is Nimue, a young girl with mysterious powers that lead her to be shunned by her entire village, with all them branding her “cursed.”
However, when her family, along with the rest of the people are killed by the Red Paladins — a group of religious zealots, she must inherit a sword given to her by her mother moments before she dies, and come to terms with the power of the sword and her lineage.
Her mission is to find the great magician Merlin and give the sword to him, and along the way, she meets Arthur, a mercenary working to bring honor back to his family. Along their adventures and perilous mission, they fall for each other while also contending with whatever may come.
Like Alina in Shadow and Bone, Nimue is also a female lead who’s at the center of prominent events that are definitely going into the annals of history.
7. First Kill (2022)
Cast: Sarah Catherine, Imani Lewis, Elizabeth Mitchell, Aubin Wise, Gracie Dzienny, Dominic Goodman, Phillip Mullings, Jr, Jason R. Moore
Available on: Netflix
Juliette Fairmont is a teenage vampire and a direct descendant of Lilith, the woman who let the serpent bite her in the Garden of Edens. With her sixteenth birthday arriving and such a legacy to uphold, she needs to get her first kill.
However, it’s not such a simple task, and the growing blood lust and moral reprehensibility of draining a human pose a conflict the likes of which she had not expected.
Meanwhile, Calliope comes from a family of monster hunters, and in a similar feat of proving their worth and getting acknowledged by her family, she must hunt her first monster quickly.
Juliette and Calliope, two teenagers destined to be arch-nemesis, instead become lovers and the consequences of this unprecedented event have to be felt by not just them, but their loved ones as well.
Aline in Shadow and Bone is a female protagonist surrounded by a lot of masculine energy in the many men that populate the world around her. Juliette and Calliope are two young and fierce girls much akin to Alina in their ferocity and bravado.
8. Siempre Bruja: Always A Witch (2019 – 2020)
Cast: Angely Gaviria, Dylan Fuentes, Sofia Bernal Araujo, Valeria Henríquez, Carlos Quintero, Sebastián Eslava, Lenard Vanderaa, Luis Fernando Hoyos, Oscar Casas
Available on: Netflix
Based on the novel Yo, Bruja by Isidora Chácon, Always A Witch follows Carmen Eguiluz, who in the 1600s is accused of witchcraft and set to be burned at the stake.
While she is in captivity, awaiting her execution, she makes a deal with the wizard Aldemar, which gives her a passage to the future, in 2019.
In the contemporary world, she must not use magic, for the cost of doing that would be alerting the powerful and evil wizard of her presence.
Meanwhile, she also had a lover in an enslaver’s son, Cristobaal. Even in the future, she can’t abandon her bewitching ways and she must also keep trying to get back to her lover.
Carmen, again, strikes as someone similar to Alina in Shadow and Bone, making her way through ups and downs in a world where magic is real and sinister villains can emerge at any moment.
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022 – Present)
Cast: Morfydd Clark, Lenny Henry, Sara Zwangobani, Dylan Smith, Markella Kavenagh, Megan Richards, Robert Aramayo, Benjamin Walker, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Tyroe Muhafidin, Charles Edwards, Daniel Weyman, Owain Arthur, Charlie Vickers, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Trystan Gravelle, Maxim Baldry, Ema Horvath, Joseph Mawle, Leon Wadham
Available on: Prime Video
Serving as a prequel series to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, The Rings of Power traces the events during the Second Age of Middle-earth. Set thousands of years before Frodo and Sam will embark on a journey to destroy the ring, this prequel series takes the viewers to the time before and during the creation of said rings.
At the center of it all are a handful of characters, hailing from different and far reaches of Middle-earth. A young Galadriel, bloodthirsty for the great evil Sauron, hunts for him through the most extreme of conditions and terrains, before crossing paths with a stranger, the Numenoreans, and the humans of the Southlands, all while the dark lord remains in their midst.
Meanwhile, the creation of the abode conducive to Sauron and the Orcs’ thriving survival serves as the constant tick of the clock in the background, as the Elven and the Dwarven factions must decide on the creation of new artifacts that would wield power unparalleled in all kingdoms.
A strong female lead and a sinister antagonist whose imprint marks every nook and corner of the world while also looming large as a grim cloud are two of the biggest similarities this series shares with Shadow and Bone.
10. The Wheel of Time (2021 – Present)
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden, Josha Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Barney Harris, Kate Fleetwood, Priyanka Bose, Hammed Animashaun, Sophie Okonedo, Kae Alexander, Fares Fares
Available on: Prime Video
Moiraine Damodred, a member of the Aes Sedai, an organization of women who can channel the One Power, seeks five young villagers after their village is attacked.
Her purpose is to weed out the one she believes to be the reincarnation of Dragon — the legendary channeler who destroyed the world.
A prophecy regarding the Dragon Reborn entails two possibilities — either they will cause the world to end again, or defend all from the Dark One, a primordial force for evil.
There are several thematic similarities between The Wheel of Time and Shadow and Bone, beyond the immediate and broad ones pertaining to their genres. Both have romances and political machinations that play out in the central storyline and in the periphery.
Also Read: 50 best Prime Video shows – Ranked (Updated March 2023)