'Shogun' Season 2: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers
Japan: so hot right now.
Not least its wealth of hot baths where foreigners can pay good money to cleanse body and soul under the mustard-and-ketchup leaves of a maple while Maiko serve matcha tea on floating trays. That’s the “authentic Japanese experience” many Westerners want today. In 17th-century Japan, hot baths were used to slowly boil foreigners alive for not renouncing their faith.
But you know this if you’ve seen the first series of Shōgun on Disney+.
The West’s obsession with most things Japanese rolls on, reflected in no small part by the wild success of FX’s hit 10-parter about a English sailor who gets shipwrecked off the coast of feudal Japan, then has to navigate his way through political intrigue, cultural clashes, and the allure of forbidden love.
Soon after its release earlier in the year, it became creator FX’s most watched show ever, based on global hours streamed (FX is also responsible for The Bear). Then, in late 2024, Shōgun became the most decorated single season TV show of all time when it took home a record-breaking 18 Emmys.
It became the first ever Japanese-language series to win outstanding drama series and picked up outstanding directing for a drama series (for Frederick E. O. Toye). There were wins for Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, who won outstanding lead actor and actress (respectively) in a drama series. Alongside this, accolades were bestowed for outstanding period costume, outstanding stunt performance, outstanding visual effects and outstanding music composition.
When the Golden Globes rolled around in January 2025, there were four more golden trophies to add to the mantlepiece for the showrunners, Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks. Strung over the burning heat of their own success, it was no surprise when the team behind the series announced there will be a second season... and then a third one after that.
First, a recap...
In 1600, English navigator John Blackthorne is shipwrecked in feudal Japan. Captured by samurai, he's brought before Lord Toranaga, a powerful warlord. Recognising Blackthorne's knowledge of Western technology, Toranaga takes him under his wing, plundering his expertise to gain an advantage in the ongoing power struggles.
Blackthorne, renamed Anjin-san (essentially, Mr. Ship's Captain), immerses himself in Japanese culture and politics. He navigates complex alliances and rivalries while forming a bond with Toranaga. He also develops relationships with Lady Mariko, Toranaga's translator, and Father Sebastio, a Portuguese priest.
As tensions escalate between Toranaga and his rivals, Blackthorne plays a crucial role in his quest for power. With Blackthorne's help, Toranaga emerges victorious, solidifying his position as a dominant figure in Japan. The season ends with Blackthorne facing a choice: return home or remain in the land that has captured his heart.
Season 1 was a wild success
Its makers bet the temple on Shōgun. Billed as "the next Game of Thrones", it is said to be the most expensive series FX has produced to date. While its exact cost remains as unspoken as a samurai's vow, consider this: Disney+ paid around $7 million (£5.5 million) for a 30-second Super Bowl ad.
The investment paid off. The premiere episodes of the series pulled in 9 million views globally across Hulu, Disney+ and Star+ in its first six days of availability (a "view" is defined as total stream time divided by runtime).
And the benefits of those risks paid off further, as previously mentioned, when it became the most celebrated single-season of TV in history during awards season. As Sanada – who plays Lord Yoshii Toranaga – said during his Emmy win: “Shogun taught me that when people work together we can make miracles”.
Seasons two and three are happening... but there's 'a lot of chaos'
After months of umming and erring by Shōgun's co-showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, the couple finally announced they’d been given the green light for the second series of a show they’d already dedicated more than five years of their lives to.
“There’s a lot of chaos, but creative chaos,” Kondo told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re throwing everything that we have at the wall, seeing what sticks. It’s been exciting and nerve-racking because, obviously, this is uncharted territory—we don’t have a road map, we just have history.”
They said they’ve already done a tour of Japan, delving into how the author skilfully wove real-life events and historical figures into the renowned novel on which the show is based.
“There’s a lot of great conspiracy theory in history… and those little darker corners are what we’ve really enjoyed exploring,” Marks added. “The third season is really an ending. We know where it starts, and we know where it ends, and we know who is there on that journey. We’re just focusing on part two right now to really make sure we can get to that point. But part two is, as second chapters go, kind of a darker chapter.”
Lord Yoshii Toranaga will be back
Reports emerged in May that series star Hiroyuki Sanada had signed a deal to return as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. So he's in. As for the others, nothing's yet been announced.
However, fans of the first season will know who lived and died, so it makes sense those who survived the turmoil will continue their roles, particularly Cosmo Jarvis.
Beneath Sanada, the first season also starred Cosmo Jarvis, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroto Kanai, Takehiro Hira, Moeka Hoshi, Tokuma Nishioka, Shinnosuke Abe, Yuki Kura, Yuka Kouri, and Fumi Nikaido.
The James Clavell Estate is also on board
The series is closely based on the eponymous 1975 novel by James Clavell, who died in 1994. And while Clavell never wrote a sequel to his Shōgun, he spent three years meticulously researching the culture and history of feudal Japan to ensure the accuracy of his portrayal.
That research now belongs to his estate, led by his daughter Michaela who will also return as executive producer in a bid to steer her father’s legacy onwards.
He did also write a handful of other books set in the same era, but some 40 years after the events of Shōgun.
Problem: they're completely out of source material
For those who have seen season one's final episode (no spoilers here) will remember its neat denouement, an ending that closely mirrored the book.
Trouble is, without any further source material, the writers face a challenge in maintaining Clavell's narrative without his help.
“We don’t have James Clavell’s novel anymore, but we learned his spirit and the taste of storytelling," Sanada told the Hollywood Reporter. "All his DNA is in our bodies, I believe.”
Marks told the Hollywood Reporter in March that no book didn't mean no ideas. "We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence," he said. "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.
"And I’ve been party to this in the past with shows like this, where you build a whole factory, and it only pumps out 10 cars and closes up shop. It’s a bummer.
"You know, one of our producers wrote a nearly 900-page instruction manual for how we do this show — almost as long as the book Shōgun itself. All of this infrastructural knowledge went into it."
They’re sticking to the facts, as much as the fiction
James Clavell was a renowned stickler for the facts. And the team behind Shōgun have vowed to continue his meticulous reconstruction of the period’s samurai customs, political intrigues, and social hierarchies.
"[We've been" trying to study his process of curation,” Kondo said. “How did he curate, which events, which characters, which characters can you conveniently combine — those sorts of things that kind of allow you to make something new.”
So what historical events could season two plunder?
The Edo period, in particular the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the real-life shogun on whom Toranaga is based) is a rich source of historical material for a show like Shōgun.
It was an era of cutthroat ambition, where power was a game of shadows and secrets... that usually ended in blood and (often quite literally) guts.
Here are four historical directions series two could go:
Establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate: Season 1 ended with Toranaga consolidating his power. But for Ieyasu, it was not the end. He faced many rivals and shadowy plots. Season two could delve into the challenges and complexities of establishing a new regime, and holding it, including potential rebellions, political maneuvering, and the cultural shift towards a unified Japan.
The later life of William Adams (Blackthorne's inspiration): Adams is the inspiration for Blackthorne -- an English sailor and long-term advisor to Tokugawa until his death in Nagasaki in 1620. He became fluent in Japanese, wore the robes, and lived the life. He became Tokugawa's chief shipbuilder. He also had plenty of run-ins with European sailors, feeling increasingly unable to relate to their Western ways. A fervent Protestant, he also hated Catholics and Jesuits and was instrumental in persuading Tokugawa to ban them (hard to imagine Disney pulling on this thread, however).
The Ban on Christianity: Ieyasu was not keen on Christians, thanks in part to Adams. So much so that, in 1614, he ordered the expulsion of all missionaries and declared Christianity illegal in Japan. Season 2 could dramatise this conflict, showcasing the cultural clash between Japanese traditions and Western beliefs, the persecution of Christians, and Blackthorne's potential role in navigating this sensitive issue.
The Siege of Osaka: This barnstormer of a historical event, is when Tokugawa Ieyasu led some 200,000 men to Osaka Castle to topple his last remaining rival Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his 100,000 men. it was a bitter war of attrition spread across two bloody battles, one in the winter 1614 and one the following summer. Tokugawa used a range of tactics, from brute force to spycraft to bribery, to crush Toyotomi's army. In season 2, the siege could showcase large-scale battles, political intrigue, and the human cost of war.
When's Shōgun season two's release date?
It’s still very early days, what with scripts needed to be fully written, not to mention the actual filming of the series, which took nine months for series one and was mainly shot in Canada. If they manage to make it happen in 2025, then chances are that we won’t see the show until 2026 at the earliest.
Sanada has essentially confirmed this, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “Hopefully sometime next year [2025], we can start shooting.”
Meanwhile, in September 2024, FX boss John Landgraf told Deadline that “scripts are coming in, outlines are coming in. We’re trying to figure out where we’re going to shoot it, whether we’re going to shoot in the exact same manner and place we did before or whether we’re going to make some changes.” He also added that he hoped series two and three would film in Japan, that they would have “separate narratives” and would not be shot back to back (looking at you, Squid Game).
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