"Shogun" season 2 is officially in development, with Hiroyuki Sanada and the show's creators working on further episodes.
Colin Bentley/FX
FX's "Shōgun" is a historical drama set in Edo-era Japan, tracking a power struggle further muddied by the arrival of a foreigner, who may be a powerful asset.
The series, created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, is based on James Clavell's 1975 novel. It stars Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toranaga, a figure reminiscent of a real-life shōgun (military ruler) of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu. When a foreign pilot named John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) washes ashore, Toranaga realizes that he may have political utility. Toda Mariko, played by Anna Sawai, serves as a translator between the two.
Viewers and critics loved "Shōgun," which the network says has become its most-viewed series of all time. Despite its critical acclaim and popularity, it seemed as though it would be a limited series, wrapping with its recent finale.
"We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence," Marks told The Hollywood Reporter. "We love how the book ends; it was one of the reasons why we both knew we wanted to do it — and we ended in exactly that place."
But FX just announced that the team is working on extending the series. Here's everything we know about the second season and the show's future.
In May, Deadline reported that Sanada, who is also a producer on the show, had closed a deal with FX to continue playing Toranaga. At the time, the show hadn't officially been renewed.
But about a week later, FX and Hulu announced that they had renewed the series. A press release used somewhat specific language, stating that FX and Hulu were working with the Clavell estate to "develop the saga with two additional seasons of the drama series."
The show will continue with the story and characters from season one, according to the press release. Marks, Kondo, Sanada, and executive producer Michaela Clavell (James Clavell's daughter) are on board, and a writers' room is set to convene this summer to begin work on the new episodes.
While a second season wouldn't necessarily require the same level of research and preparation — Marks told THR that the show's "production primer on feudal Japan" could save another show almost a year's time — the first season of Shōgun was a five-year journey, Marks told Town & Country.
And per Marks' comments, continuing onwards would mean diverging from Clavell's road map since the source material only consists of one book. FX and Hulu haven't yet set a production timeline for the series, so it's likely going to be a while.
Since upcoming seasons of the show will focus on the same characters and story, "Shōgun" will be extrapolating past its source material. At this point, we can't say where the story will go next.
Clavell did write a series of novels referred to as the "Asian Saga," that follow the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures.There are five other novels in the series: "King Rat," "Tai-Pan," "Noble House," "Whirlwind," and "Gai-Jin," published from 1962 to 1993. They're set in a variety of countries and time periods, including the more recent past — "King Rat" takes place during World War II, and draws from Clavell's personal experience as a prisoner of war. "Tai-Pan," his next novel, takes place in 19th-century Hong Kong.
"Shōgun" season one is now available to stream in its entirety on Hulu.
