Warning: This list contains spoilers for Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom novels.

Netflix’s canceled Shadow and Bone TV show never had the time to complete the story of Kaz Brekker’s (Freddy Carter) crew, the title characters of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows. Shadow and Bone loosely follows the plot of Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone novel trilogy. She later wrote the spinoff Six of Crows, focusing on new characters in the same world. However, the Shadow and Bone TV show adaptation alters the timeline so some Six of Crows events happen alongside the Shadow and Bone plot. Several key members of Kaz’s crew appear, including Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman) and Jesper Fahey (Kit Young).

By Shadow and Bone season 2, the main six members of Kaz’s crew, commonly known as the Crows, have all been introduced. Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan), Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), and Wylan Van Eck (Jack Wolfe) complete the “Six of Crows.” While Nina and Wylan join Inej and Jesper in working for Kaz, Matthias never does before the show ends, as he is imprisoned for all of season 2. The six characters readers know as the official Crows working together on the infamous Ice Court heist is one of the storylines that will never be finished after Shadow and Bone’s cancellation.

Fragments of the Crows’ storylines from Six of Crows make it into the show. Inej and Jesper come to revelations that would have been prompted by the Ice Court adventure earlier on, while Wylan’s backstory is never fully explored and Nina and Matthias’ reconciliation never happens. However, the Six of Crows novel and its sequel Crooked Kingdom feature their own version of the Crows’ complicated motivations, interpersonal relationships, and satisfying triumphs.

6

Kaz Brekker

Kaz is the criminal mastermind who leads the Crows.

Kaz is a brilliant con man who keeps everyone around him on their toes when he may change direction or reveal a valuable piece of knowledge at any moment. His inferring that the Conductor (Howard Charles) would betray the Crows in the show recalls the many times in the books when enemies thought they had the upper hand — only to realize that Kaz knew exactly what was going on from the start. Kaz is ultimately playing a long con to become the most powerful crime lord in Ketterdam at the expense of those who have wronged him.

When Kaz is approached and offered the job of breaking into the Ice Court to retrieve the scientist Bo Yul-Bayur in exchange for 30 million kruge, he knows it will be extremely difficult — but not impossible. He sets out to assemble the necessary crew, knowing that the reward money is the next step toward his revenge. Kaz is primarily motivated by a desire to ruin Pekka Rollins’ (Dean Lennox Kelly) life, as Rollins did to Kaz as a child.

Kaz and his older brother Jordie (Tommy Rodger) were raised on a farm and came to Ketterdam after their father’s death. They were scammed out of all their savings by Rollins and lived on the city’s streets as a result. Jordie later died of the plague, leaving Kaz alone. Kaz then adopted a new surname and joined the Dregs, one of the city’s gangs, working toward his ultimate revenge for many years.

5

Inej Ghafa

Inej is a skilled spy and assassin known as the Wraith.

Inej grew up in a traveling caravan of performers her family belonged to, becoming a skilled acrobat. She was kidnapped by slavers as a teenager and sold to one of the brothels in Ketterdam. When she approached Kaz without him hearing her, he bought her contract, so she would work for the Dregs instead. The show makes some changes to Inej’s story: She avoids killing as much as possible, while she has long been an assassin in the books. Her brother was taken by slavers with her, while she mentions no siblings in the source material.

Kaz’s proposed Ice Court heist offers Inej the opportunity to pay off what she “owes” on her contract, with plenty of money left over to start a new life when she is free. She decides partway through the heist itself that she wants to buy her own ship and captain a crew to hunt slavers. In Shadow and Bone season 2’s ending, Inej joins “Sturmhond’s” crew rather than being the captain of her own ship. The show also adapts parts of Kaz and Inej’s romance, including some exact quotes of dialogue.

4

Jesper Fahey

Jesper is the Crows’ sharpshooter with some surprising skills.

Jesper is a sharpshooter and secret Grisha who is recruited by Kaz sometime after arriving in Ketterdam. Jesper grew up on a farm in Novyi Zem; after his mother died, Jesper and his father decided that he should go to university in Ketterdam. Jesper started gambling shortly after arriving in the city and became addicted; he dropped out of university and started working for the Dregs to pay off his debts. He needs the money from the Ice Court heist to pay off his monumental debts, especially after he uses his father’s farm as collateral for a loan.

Jesper never misses a shot, and once Kaz deduces that Jesper is Grisha, his supernatural ability to manipulate metal also proves useful during jobs. Part of Jesper’s storyline is dedicated to him coming to terms with this; his feelings about being Grisha are complicated because his mother died using her Grisha power and his father instructed him to keep his abilities a secret. Jesper also has a relationship with Wylan, another member of the Crows. However, the timeline of Jesper and Wylan’s relationship is very different in the books.

3

Nina Zenik

Nina is vital to the Crows’ as a powerful Heartrender.

Nina’s pre-Crows/Ketterdam storyline in the show is essentially the same, although its timeline relating to the rest of the series is different. In the books, Nina is separated from the other Grisha while on a Second Army mission and is captured by Fjerdans. She and the Fjerdan drüskelle Matthias are shipwrecked and forced to depend upon each other in the wild. They fall in love, but in a moment of crisis, Nina accuses Matthias of kidnapping her, so he will be arrested by the Kerch authorities instead of the Second Army, who would likely execute him.

Nina then follows Matthias to Ketterdam and takes up residence there until she can find a way to free him from Hellgate Prison. She is recruited to the Dregs, but it is not until Kaz needs Matthias’ insight on the Ice Court that he conspires to help Nina break him out of prison. Nina and Matthias join the mission to infiltrate the Ice Court, but they agree that it is not in the interest of either of their nations that Yul-Bayur lives and plot to kill him instead of freeing him.

2

Matthias Helvar

Matthias provides the Crows with vital information and extra muscle.

Growing up in Fjerda, Matthias was raised to believe that the Grisha are all evil abominations. Matthias comes to see Nina as a fellow human but reverts to his old beliefs when she has him arrested. Matthias initially joins the Crows because Kaz can provide him with a pardon if he helps them accomplish their mission. However, Yul-Bayur’s jurdam parem drug amplifies a Grisha’s power, but is incredibly addictive. Matthias and Nina decide to kill the scientist; Matthias does not want the Grisha to become more powerful, while Nina does not want Grisha to be mentally and physically destroyed by the drug.

Their plan is then derailed when they realize that their target is dead and only his innocent teenage son is left. After escaping the Ice Court, Nina and Matthias are both loyal to Kaz with the general goal of not getting arrested and not letting the secrets of jurda parem get out. Throughout the adventure, Nina and Matthias repair their relationship and become a couple again, while Matthias comes to a new way of thinking about the Grisha. However, he is killed by another Fjerdan soldier in the chaos of Crooked Kingdom’s final act.

1

Wylan Van Eck

Wylan is the Crows’ demolitions expert.

Wylan “Hendricks” is an amazing addition to the second season of Shadow and Bone, but the show does not fully explain how Wylan came to work for Kaz. Hints in the show suggest that the plan was to follow his book storyline, in which Wylan is the son of the very merchant who hires Kaz. Due to an unspecified learning disability, Wylan cannot read, leading his father to believe he is unsuitable to inherit the lucrative family business. After his father remarries and attempts to have Wylan killed, Wylan flees to live on Ketterdam’s streets.

Wylan’s education in the sciences proved to be useful in creating explosives, and he occasionally sells products to Kaz. Kaz recruits Wylan for the Ice Court, believing that he could be used as leverage against his father if it came to it (unaware of the full story, which Wylan later tells Kaz to protect the Crows). Wylan develops a relationship with Jesper throughout the two Six of Crows books, and after their adventures, they live a wealthy lifestyle in Wylan’s father’s former house (who is arrested at the end of Crooked Kingdom when Kaz exposes his corrupt business practices).