Shadow and Bone star Ben Barnes would return to world – says series was cancelled too soon

Unfortunately, despite these efforts, the series was not renewed by Netflix or picked up by another streamer – something Ben Barnes, who played chief villain General Kirigan, remains disappointed about two years on.

While Barnes’s time as the Darkling (spoiler) came to a dagger-induced end at the hands of Alina (Jessie Mei Li) in season 2, the star was eager to see the show continue beyond his departure, with a focus on his "favourite" Grishaverse gang.

"I think they'd been working on a Six of Crows sort of story, which was honestly probably my favourite book of the series anyway," he explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com while promoting his new series, The Institute.

"So I was kind of excited, just on everyone else's behalf, to see that come to life.

"But yeah, I mean, you never know. Maybe they do have another plan for how to adapt that story, but I was sad, certainly, for the actors who are playing the Crows, who I think were really excited and keen to showcase those stories."

As mentioned, Barnes’s time on the show looked to be up before the cancellation (while the Darkling returns in novel King of Scars, he assumes a different body), but that hasn’t stopped him from returning to the realm of Leigh Bardugo’s work.

The former Narnia star talks proudly about his contribution to the audiobook version of graphic novel Demon in the Wood, and confirmed to RadioTimes.com that he’d jump at the chance to do more in that universe if given the chance.

"I love fantasy worlds. I'm a big sci-fi, fantasy genre reader. That's what I read in my own time, mostly," he said.

"And so I think, yeah, if there was ever… not that I would be involved in any sort of Six of Crows adaptations or anything, if they ever did anything with that.

"But I think, yeah, once you've been in something, you feel like that's part of the patchwork of your story as well.

"So, you know, if anyone ever asks you to revisit something like that, it's always very, very appealing to me to cement your part in whatever that thing was."

For now, Barnes will soon feature in a new sci-fi/fantasy setting, playing 'night knocker' Tim Jamieson in Stephen King adaptation The Institute.

And the science fiction fan admitted he was excited to dive into the world of one of the genre’s most famous authors.

"I like the kind of things that Stephen King writes about," Barnes revealed.

"He writes about hope and he writes about people trying to overcome unchecked authority, and this has a lot of those elements."

He continued: "I loved the structure of it. I loved how you spent all this time with one character, and then it will just completely abandon that in favour of another storyline, which you then get equally invested in.

"And I think the cogs start to tick as to how the worlds are going to collide and how the stories are going to connect, and how the characters overcome the odds to challenge the system together."

The Institute will premiere on MGM+ on 13th July.

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