Freeforms's adaptation of Cassandra Clare's popular book series "The Mortal Instruments" has already outlasted the failed film series. The television series "Shadowhunters" has been renewed for a second season, while the film series only made it through the first novel. The exciting news was announced Monday morning in a Facebook Q-and-A with the cast of the Freeform show and author Clare.
The show, which was picked up straight to series, follows the story of Clary Fray, played by Katherine McNamara, who finds out on her 18th birthday that she is not a human, like she had thought her entire life, but a Shadowhunter - a human-angel mix whose traditional job is to hunt down demons. The series also stars Dominic Sherwood as Jace, Alberto Rosende as Simon, Matthew Daddario as Alec, Emeraude Toubia as Isabelle, Isaiah Mustafa as Luke and Harry Shum, Jr. as Magnus Bane.
"Shadowhunters" premiered in January on Freeform (the network formerly known as ABC Family) and was ranked as the second-best series premiere in the history of the network. It performs consistently in the ratings thanks to its time slot. "Shadowhunters" follows the networks biggest show, "Pretty Little Liars," and is the network's overall third best performing show among total viewers.
Join us right now for a Shadowhunters Facebook Live Chat with the entire cast!
Posted by Shadowhunters on Monday, March 14, 2016
The Mortal Instruments book series that the television show is based on has six books in it: "City of Bones," "City of Ashes," "City of Glass," "City of Fallen Angels," "City of Lost Souls" and "City of Heavenly Fire." The first season of "Shadowhunters" is loosely based on the first book, "City of Bones."
"We are absolutely starting from the beginning of the books and we stay unbelievably true to the spirit of the books," showrunner Ed Decter previously said at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. "We love the books and that's what got us involved with the project to begin with."
While star McNamara admitted that show was a "skelton" of the book series, the end results of the stories will never change.
"We still sort of get from point A to point B, but the way in which we do that is a little different and our very own interpretation," McNamara said. The first season of "Shadowhunters" is "generally book one, but some of the things that we have in the story come from book six, but they are just solutions to things that we wanted to clarify in the story so we're not going one-to-one with the books because the cast, the amount of money we have, all these different things tell us where we can go with the story."
"Shadowhunters" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Freeform. The Season 1 finale airs Tuesday, April 5, at 9 p.m.
