"Shogun" season 2 is officially happening.
"Shogun" has been the best show of 2024 so far for many people, including myself. In fact, it was so good that the limited series was renewed for season 2 and potentially even a season 3. It's tough to get more impressive than that.
However, you might be wondering what exactly is going to happen in season 2, when it's going to happen and — perhaps most importantly — who is going to be in it. After all, the cast was a highlight of the show set in a slightly fictionalized pre-Tokugawa shogunate Japan, securing five nominations for acting awards at this year's Emmys. Given that this show was surprisingly green-lit for additional seasons, it's not impossible that certain people might not be able to return for the still-to-be-determined filming of season 2.
Don't worry, we've got you covered. Here's everything you need to know about "Shogun" season 2, including casting and release date rumors, plot speculation and more.
'Shogun' season 2 release date rumors
At the moment, we know very little about when to expect "Shogun" season 2. The only official information out there is from the initial announcement from FX and Hulu, where it was confirmed that a writers’ room was scheduled to be assembled in the summer of 2024.
Thankfully, the show's star and co-producer Hiroyuki Sanada has given us an update on the status of the season 2 writer's room. Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in August 2024, Sanada announced that the writers' room has just opened up (h/t MovieWeb). Along with showrunners Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, that group is hard at work brainstorming ideas for the upcoming season.
That brainstorming session is going to be very important because there's no longer any source material to work use the James Clavell historical fiction novel. Because the show was conceived as a limited, the plan was to do the entire book in one season, and that's exactly what they did.
Given that the scripts aren't even written yet, we are projecting that "Shogun" season 2 will not arrive until 2025 at the earliest. It may arrive in 2025, but between writing, casting, and production, that'd be a potentially impossible ask from FX and Hulu. Sanada has essentially confirmed as much, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "Hopefully sometime next year [2025], we can start shooting."
'Shogun' season 2 cast
Spoilers for "Shogun" seasons 1 and 2 are possible from here on out
Unlike most returning shows, we don't know much about the cast of "Shogun" season 2. In fact, at the moment, the only confirmed cast member is Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Lord Yoshii Toranaga in the first season and will return in season 2.
What we do know, is which major characters most likely won't be returning in season 2.
While Cosmo Jarvis might potentially return as the English pilot John Blackthorne, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano and Takehiro Hira will most likely not be returning as Toda Mariko, Kashigi Yabushige and Ishido Kazunari, respectively. All three performances were incredible — all three earned Emmy nominations — but without getting into spoilers, let's just say that their character arcs wrapped up without much ambiguity. Despite this, show editor Maria Gonzalez told ScreenRant that she would "love it if some of those characters came back in some form or another."
This falls in line with comments Sanada made while doing press for "Shogun" season 1's Emmy Awards campaign. Speaking with Variety, Sanada said "half the existing cast will be back, and “the other half will be new characters coming in."
As we learn more about the casting of "Shogun" season 2, we will update this section accordingly.
'Shogun' season 1 recap
If you haven't seen "Shogun" yet, stop what you're doing and watch the 10-episode season. It's the best show you'll have watched this year. But for those who need a refresh, here's a brief season 1 recap.
"Shogun" starts with the arrival of Pilot Major John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) in turn-of-the-17th-century feudal Japan. Five regents rule Japan in the stead of Nakamura Yaechiyo (Sen Mars), heir to the late Taiko. These regents allow the Catholic church and the Portuguese some access, but little else from the outside world is allowed into Japan. That's the world Blackthorne arrives in when one of those regents, Lord Yoshii Toranaga, captures Blackthorne and his crew when their derelict ship Erasmus arrives in Japanese waters.
Blackthorne doesn't speak any Japanese, so when he's brought to Lord Toranaga in Osaka, Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) is asked to translate, as both she and Blackthorne speak fluent Portuguese.
What follows is a brilliant chess match by Toranaga across the rest of the season. He throws Blackthorne into prison to sow division between the other regents, led by Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira), who is seeking to impeach and execute Toranaga. Blackthorne is sent to be executed but is then saved by Toranaga's vassal Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano), who initially tried to have Blackthorne and his men executed when the Erasmus sailed into Japan.
But Torananga never intends for Blackthorne to be killed. After learning from Blackthorne that the Portuguese intend to ultimately colonize Japan, Toranaga escapes Osaka with Blackthorne, Mariko and Yabushige. He makes Blackthorne a hamamoto, instructing the English sailor to teach Toranaga's men Western military tactics — namely the use of cannon.
While Blackthorne is training some of Toranaga's men in the use of cannon artillery, he leaves them to go find the rest of his army. He also resigns as a regent, giving Ishido no standing to impeach Toranaga until a fifth regent is elected. This buys Toranaga time, which he desperately needs after his son Yoshii Nagakado (Yuki Kura) impulsively kills some of Ishido's men.
This sets forth a chain of events that ultimately forces Toranaga to invoke "Crimson Sky," a plan to defeat Ishido and take the regency for himself. As part of this plan, Toranago reaches out to his estranged half-brother Saeki Nobutatsu (Eita Okuno) for support. However, Saeki has already agreed to become the fifth regent, and takes Toranaga and his forces captive, forcing Toranaga to agree to surrender to Ishido and the regents in Osaka.
Things change suddenly though when Nagakado dies in an altercation with Saeki. Toranaga turns away from Osaka and instead returns to his city of Edo (Toyko), where he will undergo 49 days of mourning for his son.
Ultimately, it's Blackthorne, Mariko, and Yabushige who arrive in Osaka. They arrive to surrender on Blackthorne's behalf but at night, a shinobi attack on Osaka castle ends with Mariko's death. This forces the regents to declare war on Toranaga but allows Blackthorne, Yabushige and Toranaga's consorts to escape Osaka. Yabushige is then revealed to be a traitor, and Toranaga orders him to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). Before Yabushige kills himself though, Toranaga does reveal that he has been pulling certain strings all along, and we see a flash forward to Toranaga's victory over Ishido at the Battle of Sekigahara.
While that may not seem like the briefest overview, I promise I haven't even remotely done season 1 justice. I've glossed over the importance of Mariko in particular, and Yabushige to a degree.
I've also completely overlooked the vital contributions of several women to the story. Mariko's relationship with the late Taiko's chief consort Ochiba no Kata (Fumi Nikaido) is what ultimately decides the Battle of Sekigahara, and Usami Fuji (Moeka Hoshi) is vital to getting Blackthorne to assimilate into Japanese culture as his consort. These three women may have some of the best performances in the show, but their roles are often deeper and more nuanced than what a surface-level recap can explore.
'Shogun' season 2 plot speculation
As previously mentioned, season 1 of "Shogun" focused on retelling the 1975 James Clavell novel of the same name, which tells a fictionalized version of the shift from the Azuchi–Momoyama period to the Edo period in feudal Japan.
Season 2, though ... well, we're not sure what tale season 2 will tell. Both the novel and season 1 end with the Battle of Sekigahara, so there's no more material to use there. Nor is there any material from the rest of the novels in Clavell's "Asian Saga," all of which take place centuries after the events of "Shogun."
So that means the show will need to pull from Japanese history in season 2 and a possible season 3, which Hiroyuki Sanada has confirmed. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the man tasked with portraying Toranaga said, "There will be new characters coming in, and we’re going to basically follow the real history in seasons two and three." He did say, however, that despite this adherence to history the show's writers will have creative freedom to write out the storylines they want.
Freedom may be a relative term, though. As reported by ScreenRant, future seasons of the show will be built on guidelines set in a "900-page 'bible'" that "was steeped in Japanese history, and it was kind of used as the Bible on set for all the different rules of the time, be it costumes, or how people of different ranks regarded each other in public settings." This show bible was also used in the writing and production of season 1.
Amazingly, despite the original intent for just a single season of "Shogun," the showrunners have always envisioned what they could do with more seasons.
In an interview with Variety, showrunners Marks and Kondo revealed that they had discussed what would come after season 1 with executive producer Michaela Clavell, whose father James wrote the book "Shogun" is based on. In the interview, Marks said, "There were a lot of questions that we felt were still unanswered in the story."
In that same interview, they also let on that they know how the show will eventually end. Marks said, "We [the showrunners] know how all of this ends in the final moment. And once we saw that moment, we said, 'Oh, now we have to get to that. Now we have to do that.'" Given that the book and show are based on the real lives of William Adams and Tokugawa Ieyasu, admittedly, it's not hard to see the road map laid out in front of them.
Whatever chapters of history they pull from, expect a potentially darker season 2. At an FX FYC event, showrunner Justin Marks said, "We’re just focusing on part two right now to really make sure we can get to that point. But part two is, as the second chapters go, kind of a darker chapter" (h/t Collider).
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