The final episode of Shōgun has arrived on Disney Plus, concluding their adaptation of James Clavell’s novel in a dramatic fashion.
Following the captivating finale, fans of the historical drama are now wondering if another installment is in the works.
1. Will there be a Shōgun season 2?
As of now, FX has not renewed Shōgun for a second season.
While the critically acclaimed series has received a positive response so far, it’s almost expected that a second season of Shōgun or another instalment from Clavell’s Asian Saga series will be announced.
However, according to the co-showrunners, Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, the future of the show remains uncertain. As co-creator Marks recently told The Hollywood Reporter, “I don’t know. I keep saying it’s like we want to let everyone be on the same page when it comes to the book. Hopefully, the TV audience and the book audience are now aligned on the story and where it resolves.”
“I think if we had a story, if we could find a story, we would be open to it. But I don’t think that anyone ever wants to be out over their skis without a roadmap and everything. And it’s also just about, do people want more of it?”
He continued: “But it’s also about, not even topping the book, but, how do you even equal the roadmap that Clavell laid out? And I don’t know if it’s possible. I don’t know if Clavell could have done it either. That’s probably why he moved on to other books too, right? He knew what he had done. Yeah, it’s a tough one.”
2. What could be a potential release date for Season 2?
If a second season of Shogun gets the go-ahead, fans will still need to be patient as the first season took a long time to make. As the co-showrunner explained, the team spent five years working on it, with a lot of attention to detail required every single day.
Initially, the plan was to film the series in Japan, but due to the pandemic, it was shot in Canada instead. Now that pandemic restrictions are lifted, there’s a possibility the show could move production to Japan for the second season.
However, the co-showrunner has mentioned that if a second season is greenlit, it would likely be in the pre-production phase by now to minimize any significant delays between seasons. So, while the location may change, the timeline for a potential Shogun season 2 remains uncertain.
3. Who could return for a potential Shōgun season 2?
Episode 9 delivered quite the plot twist with the death of Mariko, meaning that Anna Sawai would definitely not be back for a second season.
The cast we’d expect to make a return for season 2 include:
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga
- Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne
- Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabushige
- Hiroto Kanai as Kashigi Omi
- Takehiro Hira as Ishido Kazunari
- Moeka Hoshi as Usami Fuji
- Shinnosuke Abe as Toda Hirokatsu
- Yuka Kouri as Kiku
- Fumi Nikaido as Ochiba no Kata
- Ako as Daiyoin Lady Iyo
- Yasunari Takeshima as Muraji
- Toshi Toda as Sugiyama
- Hiro Kanagawa as Igurashi
- Junichi Tajiri as Uejiro
- Néstor Carbonell as Vasco Rodrigues
- Tommy Bastow as Father Martin Alvito
- Nobuya Shimamoto as Nebara Jozen
- Yoriko Dōguchi as Kiri No Kata
- Yuki Kedoin as Takemaru
- Mako Fujimoto as Shizu No Kata
- Haruno Niiyama as Natsu No Kata
- Hiromoto Ida as Kiyama ukon Sadanaga
- Takeshi Kurokawa as Ohno Harunobu
- Yuko Miyamoto as Gin
4. What could be a potential storyline for Shogun Season 2?
The second series may or may not directly follow the events of Shōgun season 1. This is still unconfirmed.
We do know that this series is the third book in Clavell’s series. It is often read as the first book, meaning there are five other novels that could be adapted for future seasons.
The second novel after Shōgun is Tai-Pan, published in 1966. It is considered Clavell’s masterpiece.
Tai-Pan has already been adapted into a TV miniseries in 1980. It follows European and American traders who move into Hong Kong after Britain’s victory in the first Opium War and their seizure of Hong Kong.
Tai-Pan has plenty of interesting relationships, families and characters. However, it’s still unclear if the new series will adapt this novel.
5. Does the series differ from the books?
In exclusive interviews with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, the producers behind FX’s upcoming series Shogun spoke about how the upcoming adaptation differs from the original source material.
When asked about the changes this new adaptation had to make, Clavell noted that with a book as big as Shogun, they need “to pick pieces and focuses” as they “[couldn’t] show it all even in 10 hours:”
“Well, in a book as large as my father wrote, and I don’t know how many pages it was, but it was a couple of 1000 pages. It’s a process of taking out what you want. You need to pick pieces and focuses from the book that big you can’t show it all even in 10 hours.”
FX was “very confident of doing this version from the Japanese point of view,” she continued, and that they wanted “a more ensemble cast:”
“So when we originally spoke to FX and Gina Balian and John Landgraf, they were very, very confident of doing this version from the Japanese point of view.
And I think that the original version had been more from [John] Blackthorne’s point of view, the Englishmen coming to Japan. In this version, they wanted a more ensemble cast. And they wanted to show it from Toranaga’s point of view, as much as from Blackthorne’s point of view.”
In regards to the story, Marks said that he “was conflicted about it” at first due to it following a Caucasian man, like himself, standing in clothing that “doesn’t belong to his culture:”
“And in my case, just speaking only for myself, that silhouette was like maybe a little conflicted about it. It was the image of a guy who looks a lot like this [gestures to himself, a Caucasian man]… standing in clothing that doesn’t belong to his culture.
And there’s a representational side to that which I can’t really speak to.”
Shōgun star Ana Sawai, who plays Mariko in the miniseries, has opened up about one key difference between the book and the show surrounding the end of episode 9.
Sawai explained why Shōgun episode 9’s ending differed slightly from the books.
In the books, Mariko refers to herself as a Toda, while in the show she uses her family name of Akechi. The actor explained how this change was an intentional reminder of who she is and what she was fighting for.
6. About Shōgun
Shōgun is an upcoming American historical drama television limited series based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell. The novel was previously adapted into a 1980 television miniseries.
The series is set to premiere with its first two episodes on February 27, 2024, on Hulu and FX, with new episodes of the 10-episode series then releasing weekly.
Shōgun follows “the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai; John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance”.
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