FX is officially working on two more seasons of its critically-acclaimed historical Japan drama, Shōgun.
Last week, Deadline reported that FX had signed a deal with producer and star Hiroyuki Sanada for a potential second season. Now, however, we know that two more seasons are in the works.
In addition to Sanada, who stars as Lord Toranaga, the upcoming Shōgun seasons will mark the return of co-creators, executive producers and writers Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo and executive producer Michaela Clavell, the daughter of the Shōgun novel upon which the series is based.
Speaking of the original book, the big question now is what direction the series will go in, given that the first season fully adapted the source material. It’s possible that Shōgun‘s future seasons may at least partially draw material from Clavell’s five other ‘Asian Saga’ novels, which are loosely connected to his Shōgun novel. For now, FX says it will assemble a writers’ room and work with Clavell’s estate on Seasons 2 and 3.
It should be noted, however, that FX hasn’t formally greenlit two more seasons — it’s simply going ahead with figuring out what they’d be. To that point, Disney says this news will “likely yield two additional seasons.” Therefore, we don’t know when FX would hope to begin production or if it would return to Vancouver. (It had originally been set to film in Japan but COVID restrictions resulted in the pivot to B.C.)
Still, Shōgun has been a huge critical and commercial success, so it’s likely that FX will officially order more of the series. For now, all ten episodes of the season of Shōgun are streaming on Disney+ Canada.
Meanwhile, FX’s plan for more seasons of Shōgun means that it will now submit the series for awards consideration as a Drama, rather than a miniseries. This would put it up against the likes of Netflix’s The Crown (which ended last year), Apple’s The Morning Show and Amazon’s Fallout.
Image credit: FX
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