After we met Alina Starkov she was a cartographer who had simply came upon she may summon the solar. That sort of energy is intimidating, and exhausting to harness, so throughout Season 1 of Shadow and Bone Jessie Mei Li performed this protagonist in a method that confirmed how uncertain she was about her energy. Nevertheless, now, in Season 2 of Shadow and Bone the Solar Summoner is extra comfy together with her energy, and gaining extra of it all through the season, and Li defined how she modified her efficiency between seasons to point out Alina’s newfound confidence.
Because the forged of Shadow and Bone returned to set for the second season, all of them had to consider how the occasions of the primary season impacted their characters, and the way these moments in The Fold impacted them bodily and mentally. For Alina particularly, Li labored on barely altering her character’s voice to point out her newfound energy and confidence. The actress defined what she did to perform this to CinemaBlend:
There are many issues that I needed to attempt to weave in with Alina. As a result of I needed it to really feel plausible, you already know, that she nonetheless needed to really feel like the identical woman that we acquired to know initially of Season 1. So issues that had been necessary had been like, there’s adjustments to her voice and sure facial expressions. On the finish of Season 1, for instance, when she will get her amplifier, you already know, I barely modified the locations the place her voice comes from.
For context, Li is speaking about one of the necessary moments from Season 1 when her powers are amplified after getting the ability of a stag. Throughout Season 2, she will get two extra amplifiers by means of the Sea Whip and the Firebird, and with each she will get extra energy and her feelings are heightened. The actress continued to speak about how Alina adjustments between the tip of Season 1, and when she is amplified by the Sea Whip, saying:
After which once more in Season 2, when she will get her second amplifier, you already know, I simply needed so as to add like refined little adjustments. It’s there within the script as nicely, Alina form of, she turns into extra rageful after the second amplifier, but additionally it was extra about her gaze and her eye contact and her voice these issues are necessary to make her really feel extra grounded somewhat than the form of the wobbly, the wobbly woman we met in Season 1.
Alina actually does change from the “wobbly,” confused woman in Season 1, into a robust, rageful lady by the tip of Season 2. Li spoke with Collider about how this transformation right into a tenser, rage-filled, but assured Alina bodily affected her. She mentioned the way in which she held Alina’s rigidity was completely totally different from her personal, and he or she realized that this distinction was what was the reason for her again ache. It’s fascinating to listen to the actress’s course of, particularly in terms of the bodily evolution of essentially the most highly effective character in top-of-the-line fantasy exhibits on TV proper now.
Watching Season 2 I may really feel the variations in Li’s efficiency, she carried herself in a different way as Alina post-amplifiers, and that helped emphasize the influence they had been having on not solely her physique, however your complete story. To see how Jessie Mei Li developed as Alina between Season 1 and Season 2 of Shadow and Bone, which simply premiered on the 2023 TV schedule, you’ll be able to stream the sequence with a Netflix subscription.
