''Shōgun'' is an upcoming American

period drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swas ...

television limited series based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell that is set to premiere on

FX on Hulu FX Networks, LLC, is a company consisting of a network of cable channels plus a production company and a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content segment of The Walt Disney Company. Originally a part of 21st Century Fox, the comp ...

Premise

''Shōgun'' follows "the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai: John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance".

Cast

Cosmo Jarvis Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan Jarvis (born 1 September 1989) is a British actor, musician, and filmmaker. In 2015, he auditioned and was cast to portray the character of Sebastian in William Oldroyd's debut feature film ''Lady Macbeth'' (2016). Ea ...

John Blackthorne John Blackthorne is the hero of James Clavell's 1975 novel ''Shōgun'', and is loosely based on the life of the 17th-century English navigator William Adams, who was the first Englishman to visit Japan. The character also appears in the 1980 TV ...

Hiroyuki Sanada is a Japanese actor and martial artist. He is best known to international audiences for his roles as Genbu in ''Ninja in the Dragon's Den'' (1982), Ryuji Takayama in '' Ring'' (1998), Seibei Iguchi in ''The Twilight Samurai'' (2002), Ujio in ' ...

as Lord Toranaga *

Anna Sawai is a New Zealand actress, singer and dancer. She landed her first acting role at age 11 as the titular character in the 2004 Nippon TV production of ''Annie (musical)#International productions, Annie'' shortly after moving to Japan. Sawai later ...

as Lady Mariko *

Tadanobu Asano , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in '' Electric Dragon 80.000 V'', Kakihara in '' Ichi the Killer'', Mamoru Arita in '' Bright Future'', Hattori Genosuke in ''Zatoichi'', Ke ...

as Kashigi Yabushige *

Fumi Nikaido is a Japanese actress and fashion model. Career Starting as a model in Naha, Okinawa, Nikaidō made her film debut in 2009 in ''Toad's Oil'', directed by Kōji Yakusho. She and Shota Sometani received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best You ...

as Ochiba No Kata * Tokuma Nishioka as Toda Hiromatsu * Takehiro Hira as Ishido Kazunari * Ako as Daiyoin Lady Iyo *

Shinnosuke Abe is a Japanese former professional baseball player who spent his entire 19-year career with Nippon Professional Baseball's Yomiuri Giants, serving as the team's captain from 2007 to 2014. He has twice been named the MVP of the Nippon Professional ...

as Toda Hiroshige "Buntaro * Yasunari Takeshima as Muraji * Hiroto Kanai as Koshigi Omi * Toshi Toda as Sugiyama * Hiro Kanagawa as Igarashi *

Néstor Carbonell Néstor Gastón Carbonell (; born December 1, 1967) is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He came to prominence for his role as Luis Rivera in the NBC sitcom ''Suddenly Susan''. He is known for his roles as Richard Alpert in the ABC ...

as Father Rodrigues * Yuki Kura as Yoshii Nagakado *

Tommy Bastow Thomas Derek Bastow (born 26 August 1991) is an English actor and musician from Epsom, Surrey. He is best known for playing the character Dave the Laugh in Paramount Pictures' '' Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'', as Joe in the British Telec ...

as Father Martin Alvito * Moeka Hoshi as Usami Fuji * Yoriko Dōguchi as Kiri No Kata * Yuka Kouri as Kiku * Yuki Kedoin as Takemaru *

Gerard Butler Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as '' Mrs Brown'' (1997), the James Bond film '' Tomorrow Never ...

as Portuguese Priest *Mako Fujimoto as Shizu No Kata

Production

Development

During the

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canada, Canadian television television criticism, critics, journalists and columnists who cover television television programme, programming for newspapers, ...

's annual summer press tour in August 2018, FX announced to make a new adaptation of ''Shogun'' and had given the production a straight-to-series order. Executive producers were expected to include Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich,

Michael De Luca Michael De Luca (born August 13, 1965) is an American film studio executive, film producer and screenwriter. The former president of production at both New Line Cinema and DreamWorks, De Luca has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Bes ...

, Michaela Clavell, Tim Van Patten,

Eugene Kelly Eugene Kelly (born 9 August 1965) Eugene Kelly allmusic biography. is a Scottish musician who is a member of the group The Vaselines, a founding member of the now disbanded Eugenius and has had a number of solo releases. Eugene Kelly formed The ...

, and

Ronan Bennett Ronan Bennett (born 14 January 1956) is an Irish novelist and screenwriter. Background Bennett, the son of William H. and Geraldine Bennett, was born in England, but was raised in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, in a devout Roman Catholic famil ...

. Rachel Bennette is set as a supervising producer, Tom Winchester as a producer, Georgina Pope as a co-producer, and Eriko Miyagawa as an associate producer. Patten will also direct for the series as Bennett will also write. FX Productions and DNA Television are slated to serve as production companies for the series. Sanada serves as a Producer. The 10-episode limited series is produced by FX Productions.

Filming

Principal photography for the series was scheduled to commence in March 2019 in Japan and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, but was delayed because the network felt that the production wasn't in good enough shape and that they wanted to aim higher. In January 2020, it was revealed that after original writer

was no longer available to keep working on scripts, they started over from scratch with new writer and executive producer Justin Marks, working alongside his wife, supervising producer Rachel Kondo. The series’ writing team also includes co-executive producer Shannon Goss, consulting producer Matt Lambert, script editor Maegan Houang and staff writer Emily Yoshida. Principal photography for the series began on September 22, 2021, in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, and lasted until July 2, 2022, a full two months over the expected timeframe.

References

External links

* {{Asian Saga 2020s American drama television miniseries English-language television shows Upcoming drama television series Television series set in feudal Japan FX Networks original programming Television shows based on American novels Television shows based on British novels Television shows filmed in Vancouver Asian Saga Television articles with incorrect naming style Japan in non-Japanese culture Adaptations of works by James Clavell