When we first learned last May that FX's feudal Japan-set epic Shōgun had scored a Season 2 and 3 renewal, it would be fair to say that our reaction was excitement and trepidation in equal measure. Excitement because Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks' sweeping, lavish treatment of James Clavell's novel gave us the best TV show of 2024; trepidation because Shōgun was very much pitched and designed as a limited series, with its finale taking us to the end of Clavell's book. Today however, announcing a January 2026 start date for production on Season 2, FX and Disney+ have given us a little more information on what's next for the Shōgunverse.
First thing's first, Kondo and Marks are back to helm and write Shōgun Season 2, and they will be joined by stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis, who will reprise their roles as Lord Yoshii Toranaga and John Blackthorne respectively on the show's sophomore outing. (Anna Sawai's Mariko and Tadanobu Asano's Yabushige are, for obvious reasons to anyone who's seen the first season, not expected to return.) Second thing's second, potentially validating our Battle of Sekigahara theories, we also now know that there's a big ol' time jump ahead in Season 2. Per the press release's official description, "part two of Shōgun is set ten years after the events of the first season and continues the historically-inspired saga of these two men from different worlds whose fates are inextricably entwined." It's an expectedly vague logline, admittedly, but one that promises Sanada's titular military leader and Jarvis' Anjin Blackthorne's story has plenty of mileage left beyond the scope of Clavell's own source material.
Having won pretty much every award it was nominated for at the Emmys, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards, SAG Awards, and in a matter of days presumably the BAFTA TV Awards too, the first season of Shōgun — a show which, it bears remembering, is largely subtitled — almost single-handedly brought the 'one-inch barrier' between TV lovers and exceptional foreign language shows crashing down with its gorgeous cinematography, gripping central performances, and thronesian level of knotty, complex plotting. Wherever Season 2 and 3 end up leading us then, you can be absolutely certain we'll follow.