ShogunThe success at the Emmy Awards confirmed the overwhelming reception from viewers for the first season. FX boss John Landgraf says they have a lot of work to do in the second season, which will now venture beyond the novel's plot.
FX executive John Landgraf told Deadline that Shogun Season 2 is making progress in early development. The show’s big wins at the Emmy Awards have secured plans to continue the story after fully adapting James Clavell’s novel; Landgraf said they’re currently working on drafts of the script. “We’re moving forward,” he confirmed.Scripts are comingthe outlines are coming, we are trying to figure out where we will shoot, whether we will shoot exactly the same way and in the same place as before or if we make any changes.” He also teased that the scale of production for season two will require ambitious filming locations.
“I've always wanted to shoot in Japan,” he said, responding to lead star Hiroyuki Sanada's desire to film at historical sites. “We've put a lot of effort into figuring out how to shoot this show in Japan. It's complicated because of the size of the stage base and the production capacity, which is just a little bit different. We've had trouble matching the location and the scale of what we can do there with the scale of the show's ambition. Unfortunately, in medieval Japan, castles are no longer in their former form, and frankly, if they were there, you wouldn't be able to shoot there anyway.”
FX Boss Shares Uncertain News About Shogun Season 3
The first season of Shogun was shot primarily in Port Moody and Ucluelet, Canada, on sets that recreated feudal Japan (some principal photography was done in Japan and the United Kingdom). Sanada had previously been adamant about moving production for season two to Japan, but recently noted that Vancouver would be the perfect location. “They have a big studio and within a 20-minute drive of the studio they have a forest, a river, a harbor, everything, with no modern buildings or wires or cables,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “In Japan, it's so hard to find that. Modern things are everywhere.” Shogun was given the green light for two more seasons after the conclusion of the first season, but Landgraf made it clear that they are carefully evaluating this decision.
When asked if they plan to shoot the next two seasons of Shogun simultaneously or consecutively, Landgraf hinted that they have not yet decided whether the series will get a third season.[Seasons 2 and 3 are] separate narratives,” he said. “They’re all part of a continuing narrative with characters that continue, but they’re separate narratives. I don’t know if we’re certain that there will be three seasons, but really looking at the characters in the story that’s being portrayed here, even if it’s fictionalized, we still feel like three is the right number of seasons to do it justice.” Sanada was more optimistic about the prospects for the third season, saying that there’s so much rich history in Japan to draw from.
Season 1 of Shogun is streaming on Hulu and Disney+. Season 2 does not currently have a release date.
Source: Deadline