Shadow and Bone season 2 has officially entered production – and, after almost a year of waiting, we finally know who'll play fan favorite characters in Nikolai and Wylan.
Announced in a video before filming on Shadow and Bone season 2 begun, the Netflix show 's cast confirmed that the cameras had started rolling once more on location in Budapest.
But that's not the only news that'll make Shadow and Bone fans shout "Thank the Saints!" over and over again. Four of the Netflix show's new cast members were also revealed, including the actors who'll portray beloved characters in Nikolai and Wylan.
Check out the video below:
Patrick Wolfe (Tolkien, The Darkest Minds) will play Nikolai Lantsov, who also goes by the pseudonym Sturmhond in Leigh Bardugo's fantasy novel series. In the books, the former King of Ravka reinvents himself as the leader of a pirate crew to hide his true identity from The Darkling.
Of the newly announced quartet, Mortal Kombat star Lewis Tan is arguably the most well-known. Tan will portray Tolya Yul-Bataar, a Grisha Heartrender and a member of Nikolai's pirate crew.
Jack Wolfe (Inside No. 9, The Witcher) will play Wylan Hendriks – in the novels, he's known as Wylan Van Eck, but his name has been changed for Netflix's TV adaptation. In Bardugo's series, Wylan joins the Dregs as a demolitions expert and helps them to rescue someone called Bol Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court, a Fjerdan stronghold.
Finally, Anna Leong Brophy (Last Tango in Halifax, Traces) Brophy will portray Tolya's twin brother Tamar Kir-Battar, another Heartrender but an ex-member of Nikolai's crew. Curiously, Tamar doesn't appear in Shadow and Bone's mainline trilogy of books, but we'll explain why she's in season 2 below.
Recent reports had suggested that principal photography on Shadow and Bone season 2 would begin in early January. And, based on these announcements, those rumors have been proven correct.
It's unclear how long season 2 will be in production for. However, filming on Shadow and Bone's first season took four months to complete. If its sequel takes a similar amount of time, principal photography may end around May. If that ends up being the case, we could feasibly see Shadow and Bone season 2 land in the final couple of months of 2022, which would be a superb early Christmas present.
Analysis: Shadow and Bone season 2's story will cover more than one book
Shadow and Bone's new cast members offer an intriguing glimpse into season 2's potential storylines.
As we mentioned, Tamar Kir-Battar's addition to this cast seemingly confirms that Shadow and Bone season 2 will draw from more than one of the novels. Why? Because Tamar doesn't appear in the book series' three main entries.
Tamar's first appearance is in King of Scars, an offshoot from the main trilogy that follows Nikolai Lantsov, Nina Zenik (who is played by Danielle Galligan in the show) and, perhaps most importantly, Zoya Nazyalensky, who Sujaya Dasgupta plays in the TV show.
Given that Tamar and her twin brother Tolya meet up with Zoya in King of Scars, and that the trio are part of the season 2 cast, we're very confident in saying that season 2's plot will incorporate elements of King of Scars That's alongside Siege and Storm – the second novel in the main trilogy – and potentially Crooked Kingdom, the second book in another spin-off book series that continues the Dregs' story.
The show's first season incorporated elements from Six of Crows – the first novel that stars the Dregs – alongside Shadow and Bone, the first novel in the mainline series, so Netflix has previous form for combining stories from the books in its TV adaptation.
With Shadow and Bone season 2 adding four new characters from a various books in the series, then, we'd be surprised if plot threads from Siege and Storm, Crooked Kingdom and King of Scars don't make up season 2's eight-episode run. Hopefully, we'll get some sort of official confirmation at Paris Roster Con, with a Shadow and Bone season 2 panel taking place at the event between January 22 and 23.
I made French Toast in an air fryer and it was far easier than on a stove
Sometimes there’s nothing better than an indulgent breakfast. Monday to Friday I tend to eat fruit for breakfast because easy prep means extra shut-eye in the morning. But come Saturday, I’m looking to kickstart the weekend fun with a tasty treat - and for me, that means French Toast.
There’s nothing better than soft, fluffy bread soaked in a sweet, eggy liquid - or if I’m feeling super special, an egg custard made with heavy cream - fried until it's crisp, and served with a lashing of maple syrup. However, when frying the bread in a pan on the stove, you have to monitor it like a hawk.
The temperature of the pan gets harder to regulate over time, which means that the first side of the bread cooks evenly to an appetizing, golden brown, while the second side burns, leaving a bitter flavor on my indulgent sweet treat.
Air fryers are great for evenly browning and crisping foods because they have a smaller cavity, which allows hot air to circulate quickly during the cooking process. So I wondered, could an air fryer be the key to perfectly golden French Toast?
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Read on to discover what happened when we made French Toast in an air fryer - or, if you’ve already decided you want to invest in this handy kitchen appliance, check out the best prices right now:
Let's get cooking
As we already mentioned, French Toast only requires a handful of ingredients: thick-sliced, fluffy white bread (although whole wheat or multigrain will give you a nuttier flavor), eggs, a splash of milk, a pinch of cinnamon, and a dash of vanilla extract.
I have tried a number of French Toast recipes over the years, but have settled on this Jamie Oliver version for most occasions. On very special occasions, I make this BBC Good Food recipe that’s more indulgent since it uses heavy cream and brioche for a sweeter, richer dish.
While I felt confident in my knowledge of how to generally make French Toast - like what ingredients to use - I wasn't sure how to use the air fryer to cook the toast, what timing and temperature, which you need to know for something like the Instant Vortex Plus , the machine at the top of our air fryer list.
So I did some research on air fryer French Toast recipes, and coupled with my previous experience cooking with the appliance - for example, when I made fried chicken to rival KFC in an air fryer or when I discovered that cooking cinnamon rolls in an air fryer is better than my usual method - I settled on a cooking temperature of 385 F / 196 C degrees and a duration of eight minutes.
The only thing left to do was to start preparing the French Toast. I cracked the eggs into a large dish, added the milk, vanilla, and cinnamon, and whisked the liquid together. I then placed slices of thick white bloomer loaf into the dish for two minutes, before flipping each over to ensure all the eggy liquid was soaked up.
In order to compare the air fryer to my usual method, I created another batch of French Toast using the same recipe, but reserved for cooking in a fry pan on the stove. I used a ½ tablespoon of oil and a knob of butter - as I usually would - and fried the bread for three minutes on each side, with the stove set to a medium heat.
I set the air fryer to preheat while I heated the frying pan, then with the stove-cooked batch underway, I placed a slice of prepped French Toast on the crisper plate in the frying basket of the air fryer, and started cooking. However, halfway through cooking, I ran into my first problem when I went to flip the bread in the air fryer over to ensure each side crisped evenly.
The crisper plate was so hot that the eggy liquid had stuck to it, making it nearly impossible to turn without losing some of the crispy finish on the French Toast.
Verdict
Once I got to the end of the cooking time, I opened the air fryer drawer and was extremely impressed. The air fryer had worked great, creating crunchy, evenly browned French Toast that was pillowy soft inside. It was also appetizingly golden brown, unlike the batch I fried on the stove, which burned (as usual!) on one side after the pan became too hot.
However, the crisper plate of the air fryer was left with a sticky mess that was burned onto it. Luckily, it’s dishwasher safe, so I popped it straight into the machine on a short cycle to ensure the remnants would be removed right away, while I pondered what I could do to prevent this issue in the future.
I had the same issue when I cooked cinnamon rolls in the air fryer, so I now use a round cake tin when cooking cinnamon rolls because this prevents the buttery sugary filling from seeping out of the rolls and making a mess of the crisper plate. But that 8-inch cake tin can only hold one slice of French Toast at a time, which will slow down my cooking process considerably.
So I decided to use baking parchment paper, which I cut into a strip just 2mm bigger than the slice of toast - so the hot air could still circulate around the bread; then I placed the paper on the crisper plate before laying the bread on top. This time, when it came to flipping the French Toast partway through cooking, I had no issues and there were no remnants stuck to the crisper plate.
Spurred on by the great results with my usual French Toast recipe, I decided to give the more indulgent version that uses heavy cream a go. After whisking together the ingredients to create the egg custard, and soaking the bread in the liquid for two minutes on each side, I pre-heated the air fryer using the same cooking temperature and duration as before and again, placed the French Toast on baking parchment paper so it wouldn't stick to the crisper plate.
Halfway through cooking, I went to flip the French Toast, and while the side facing up was evenly browned and starting to crisp, the side that had been face down on the baking parchment looked less appealing than I’d hoped.
I continued to let the French Toast cook, but when I eventually opened the frying basket at the end of the cooking duration, the toast wasn’t as golden brown or crisp as I had hoped. This, I figured, is due in part to the consistency of the heavy cream, meaning that the toast required more time to fully cook and crisp. I added an additional three minutes to the cooking time, and this change resulted in crisp, crunchy French Toast that was soft and fully cooked inside.
Using an air fryer really did improve the quality of my French Toast, ensuring it was evenly browned and crisp all over, while remaining soft and fluffy inside. It’s far easier than having to watch French Toast like a hawk as it cooks in a frying pan on the stove.
I’ll certainly be using an air fryer from now on when I make French Toast. But, I‘ll always use baking parchment paper to ensure the crisper plate doesn’t end up a charred, eggy mess. If French Toast is your go-to breakfast treat, I urge you to give the air fryer method a go.
Wheel of Time author dismayed George R. R. Martin worked on Elden Ring
A popular fantasy novelist and author of the final books in the Wheel of Time series has expressed his dismay that George R. R. Martin was asked to contribute to Elden Ring despite the Game of Thrones author not having a strong interest in contemporary video games.
Speaking on a Q&A panel discussion which was uploaded to YouTube last week, Brandon Sanderson, who's also written the Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive series of novels, said he was disappointed that Martin was asked to write the lore of FromSoftware’s upcoming game, rather than a fantasy author more familiar with the developer’s previous work, such as himself.
“Let me be salty,” Sanderson said. “FromSoftware decides to make a fantasy game and partner with a fantasy novelist, and they choose someone who spends his days blogging about the NFL rather than the person who has played their games since King’s Field and has listed their games as among his top 10 consistently over time.”
“What are you thinking people,” he adds, rather tongue-in-cheek.
“They went to George and made a game with George, and I’m like, George doesn’t play video games. George has no idea.”
Analysis: fans don’t always get what they want
George R. R. Martin hasn’t kept his limited knowledge of modern gaming a secret. In a blog post last year, he praised Elden Ring and revealed that he’d ended up contributing to its backstory and world-building after game director Hidetaka Miyazaki reached out. In the same post, he also revealed that video games weren’t his forte.
“Now, video games are not really my thing - oh, I played a few back in the dawn of time, mainly strategy games like Railroad Tycoon, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Master of Orion - but this offer was too exciting to refuse,” Martin said.
Although all three of those games were released well before the turn of the millennium, it’s not Martin’s knowledge of the medium that secured him the job. Miyazaki has previously said he’s a huge fan of Martin’s work, expressing his love for A Song of Ice and Fire and describing the author’s 1982 antebellum novel Fevre Dream as a “masterpiece among vampire fantasy” that he recommends to all new employees.
From Sanderson's own admission, however, he's quite the fan of FromSoftware's work. King’s Field was the first video game the developer released and it came to the original PlayStation in 1994. If Sanderson’s been following the developer since then, it’s understandable why he’s a little disappointed not to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with one of his favorite studios on the much-anticipated game.