After its epic run at the Emmys this past year, it was decreed that Shogun was not a miniseries after all, falling into the White Lotus category of limited series that perform so well, they’re granted an extended lifespan. Seasons 2 and 3 of Shogun were greenlit, and now we have some news about season 2’s release date. It’s not great.
Shogun season 2 will begin filming in January 2026. What’s that mean for when we’re actually going to see it? Well, here’s the math:
- January 2026 is almost two years exactly since Shogun season 1 aired. And that’s just starting filming.
- Shogun season 1 began filming in September 2021, and between that and post-production, it was two years and five months.
You can see how this is about to be very bad. If filming and production take the same amount of time, we are looking at probably close to 4.5 years between season 1 and season 2 of Shogun, where season 2 would have an estimated release date of May 2028. Good lord. Even in the age of long gaps between seasons of streaming shows, that makes the three-year gaps between Wednesday and Stranger Things seasons look quaint.
There are a few factors here, namely that season 2 of this show was seemingly never planned at all, so it had to be conceived of and written before filming started, and that apparently took two years by itself. Production could take less time than before with things like sets and VFX already in motion, but that’s never been a guarantee for shorter gaps between seasons of other shows. Most of the time, the gaps between later seasons of series take longer, if anything.
We don’t know a whole lot about season 2 of Shogun, other than the fact that it takes place 10 years after the first season, and actors Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis will reprise their roles as (spoilers) two of the only characters who didn’t die. The show lost Emmy-winner Anna Sawai, unfortunately, due to her climactic death that was the crux of the entire season.
This very much seems like a risk, given that the first series took the better part of a decade to develop and was based on a book that does not have a sequel, so things are going to be freestyled from here, later seasons of Game of Thrones style. That’s not to say there will for sure be a quality dip, as it’s still the same talented team, but who knows. This could go the way of The White Lotus, or it could be Big Little Lies. It does not want to be Big Little Lies. I guess we’ll find out in (sigh) 2028.
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