Shadow and Bone is groundbreaking in its diversity of Asian characters

The Mary Sue

The Netflix fantasy series "has four prominent Asian characters in its ensemble, and all of them are breaking up the Asian monolith fallacy," says Jenevia Kagawa Darcy. "Oftentimes, Hollywood’s approach to including Asians into a main cast is to have only one per project. This puts a disproportionate amount of pressure on one character and actor to make all Asians feel represented. Asia is the largest continent in the world, with close to 50 countries that have a wide array of languages, cultures, and histories. Netflix’s Shadow and Bone is accurately showing how there is considerable diversity under the 'Asian' label and offering representation with substance through its main protagonist Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), her endgame love interest Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), the skilled spy Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman), and the powerful Squaller Zoya Nazyalensky (Sujaya Dasgupta)." ALSO: Watch Shadow and Bone's blooper reel.