The creators of Emmy-winning drama “Shogun” offered tantalizing glimpses into the ambitious scope of the show’s second season during a discussion at the Disney+ originals preview at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort on Thursday, promising unprecedented battle sequences and an unexpected romance alongside the series’ 10-year narrative leap.
Co-creator and executive producer Justin Marks described the sophomore season as both a sweeping love story and an exploration of war’s devastating cost, teasing visual scale that will push beyond what audiences have seen before. “Part 2 is, I would say two things,” Marks said. “Like the first season, I think part two is a really sweeping, beautiful and you’re never going to see a coming, entirely unexpected love story. It’s also a story of war and the cost of war. There are battle sequences that we’re putting together now in part two. I don’t think you’ve ever seen anything like this kind of scale, this kind of tragedy and this kind of humanity.”
The new season will jump ahead a decade from the events that concluded season one, a creative choice that Marks said reflects both the realities of modern television production and an opportunity to rediscover the characters in a fresh context. “This show is going to take us a little while to produce. It’s not coming out one year later, and there’s this thing that drives me crazy when you watch a show that ended three years ago, and you get into season two and it’s like five minutes later,” Marks explained. “We’re trying to use this jump as a way to come back to our characters again for the very first time, to see them, to see what’s changed in their lives over the course of the last 10 years, and to rediscover them.”
The time jump also serves the show’s larger ambitions as what Marks described as “a saga first and foremost.” While the first season centered on agency and power, following “a man intent on bringing about peace from the threshold of war,” the historical reality of feudal Japan’s trajectory means season two will grapple with different themes. “As we know in history, that’s not quite how things turned out for feudal Japan at that time,” Marks noted.
Co-creator and executive producer Rachel Kondo said the connection audiences formed with the first season has given the creative team confidence to venture into more challenging territory. “I think it was surprising to us that the audience was drawn to the story as emotionally and as profoundly as they were,” Kondo said. “What we felt in the audience was that they had lent us the most important things. They lent us their time. They lent us their care, they lent us their attention. It’s really the thing that we take into season two, because it’s what emboldens us.” That trust, she suggested, opens creative possibilities. “If we had people follow us into this land of feudal Japan, maybe they’ll follow us into some deeper, more cavernous spaces.”
Star and executive producer Sanada Hiroyuki, whose performance as Lord Toranaga Yoshii earned him Emmy and Golden Globe awards, spoke extensively about the show’s impact and what lies ahead. “It was a great surprise, big surprise,” Sanada said. “We got a lot of awards, and for me, especially as a producer and as a leading actor, each time I got a award, that was amazing. I could never have imagined shooting in Vancouver a few years ago.”
The veteran actor, who started as a child actor in Japan and has worked for 40 years locally and 20 years in Hollywood, reflected on pouring all that experience into the first season. “Being recognized in this way is a significant point in my life,” he said. “During the awards ceremonies, the faces of all the people involved, my seniors and teachers, appeared in my mind. In a sense, I feel I was able to repay them.”
Sanada emphasized the broader significance of the show’s success for Asian talent globally. “The awards I received are not just for this work, not just for Japanese actors, but they represent opportunities expanding for talented individuals from various countries,” he said. “What was once called a dream can now be achieved if you work toward it. I hope this becomes a message.”
He had encouragement for aspiring actors. “As long as you prepare yourself so you won’t be flustered when your chance comes, by learning language, acting, and physical skills including movement, I believe opportunities like this will come again,” Sanada said. “I think this ‘Shogun’ platform has become an important stage for giving chances to wonderful young talent and introducing them to the world. Please look forward.”
Speaking about working with younger actors, including Asano Tadanobu, who played Yabushige Kashigi in the first season, Sanada said the experience has been enriching. “Working with young actors is always stimulating, and I learn a lot from them as well,” he said. As both an actor and producer on the series, he was able to provide guidance from early production stages, including advising on physical movement, sword techniques and how to sheathe the sword properly. “When good takes were captured, I felt even happier than when I succeeded myself. I worked with a parental feeling of joy,” he said.
When asked what audiences can expect from the new season, Sanada teased surprises. “This is a historical story, but even those who know what happened in history will be freshly surprised and excited by the twists,” he said.
Sanada acknowledged the pressure of following up the first season’s success while expressing confidence in the team. “Of course, I have pressure for Season 2, but we have a teamwork from season one, and we have a lot of great new casts, so I can’t wait to start shooting, and I can use my pressure as strength to create even better season two,” he said. Kondo playfully reminded him to rest and take vitamins, noting that the new season will be demanding. Sanada joked that playing the character 10 years older might allow for a quieter performance.
The production is bringing back two directors from the first season, Kamata Hiromi and Fukunaga Takeshi, while adding new voices including Anthony Byrne, Kate Herron and Marks himself to the directorial roster. Marks praised the new directors’ deep engagement with the show’s world. “Anthony and Kate, these two new faces coming to our show in Vancouver are filmmakers and visionaries in their own right, and came to this show as people who had really immersed themselves in the world of season one and fallen in love with it. We were really touched by that and the insights they had.” The directors are currently in pre-production in Vancouver, building sets for what promises to be a visually ambitious season.
With Season 2 venturing beyond James Clavell’s original novel, Marks emphasized the continued close partnership with the author’s estate. Clavell’s daughter Michaela remains an executive producer on the series and has been deeply involved in every creative decision. “She’s been for us from the very beginning, our muse in this process, someone who really understands her father’s words and has been engaged on every draft, every casting choice, every director choice,” Marks said. “She really has been someone who keeps us honest with the words.”
The creative team began developing ideas for Season 2 during production of the first season, leaning into what Marks described as “the spirit of storytelling from the era in which ‘Shogun’ was written, which is a great serialized saga storytelling of the 70s, where you could just pick up a story and get immersed in 100 different horizontal directions.”
Kondo suggested that working within constraints has actually enhanced their storytelling approach. “I think we discovered that having parameters enhance the story,” she said. “We had so many blockades along the way, COVID, a huge shoot, inexperienced people. We learned to invite parameters. The biggest parameter of all right now for us is this history itself. We have to work within the confines of what has happened and make choices and be discerning.”
Marks credited FX with giving the production creative freedom from the start, including the bold decision to produce the show predominantly in Japanese with subtitles. “They allowed us to make these risks,” he said. “To do this show in the United States, predominantly in Japanese, to allow us to subtitle it in the way that we did. That’s on them, to really give it to us. It was a very courageous choice on their end.” That creative courage extended to allowing the show to explore “poetry and performance and dance contests and all kinds of things” rather than defaulting to more conventional action-driven storytelling.
While the creators remained tight-lipped about specific plot details, Marks acknowledged that the new season will introduce fresh faces alongside returning cast members. “We killed a lot of people” in the first season, he said. “We have some really exciting characters this season, characters that I want to tell you everything about, but cannot. These faces really popped for us, so we’re just so excited to bring our own family together with these new faces and watch them become part of this world.”
“Shogun” Season 1 broke the record for most Emmy Award wins by a series in a single season with 18 statuettes. Sanada became the first Japanese actor history to win the Emmy for best lead actor in a drama. Anna Sawai was also the first actress of Asian decent to win best lead actress in a drama.
