It’s not an official renewal just yet, but FX, Hulu and the estate of author James Clavell are moving ahead with two more seasons of Shōgun with a writers’ room convening this summer.
As Variety reports, this does not mean that we’ll actually get two more seasons, only that the show’s producers and the powers-that-be at FX/Hulu are moving forward with the very earliest stages. The show would need to be formally renewed for it to move into production stages.
Season 1 was a massive hit and it seems likely that it will nab a number of awards come award season. Star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada has already signed a deal to return for Season 2, though we don’t know which other cast members might return alongside him. Cosmo Jarvis’s James Blackthorne would make sense as a returning character, given that he lives out his days in Japan. But other major characters from Season 1 will not return, given the rather high body count.
SPOILERS
Anna Sawai’s Tadanobu Asano Mariko and Tadanobu Asono’s Yabushige both died at the end of Season 1, as did Tokuma Hishioka’s Hiromatsu. Ishido (Takehiro Hira) didn’t die onscreen, but we know that he’s killed after losing the battle with Toranaga. A new season (or two) would require all new stories and a replenished cast. It’s unclear what those stories would be, given Toranaga achieves his goals by the end of Season 1 and founds a long-lasting dynasty.
Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai actually takes place during the early days of the Tokugawa shogunate, which would be a similar time period to a Shogun sequel. The period around 1614 would be interesting, as it’s when Christians were banned from Japan, but the real-life counterpart of Toranaga—Tokugawa Ieyasu—died in 1616. There are likely many stories to be told of the period between 1603 and his death as he established his rule, but I’m not sure any are quite so dramatic as the events of Season 1.
I’m curious to see what they come up with, and hopeful that whatever it is will be formally renewed by FX and Hulu.
