‘Shogun’ is a historical drama miniseries based on the 1975 novel ‘Shōgun A Novel of Japan’ by James Clavell. With over 1,100 pages, the book was a major hit and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, further showcasing its success. Moreover, the miniseries was created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks who themselves were fans of the novel.
The adaptation done by Kondo and Marks has left the fans of the novel speechless. People were impressed with their ability to compile such an intricate story within just 10 episodes. The series has a 9.2 rating on IMDB and 99% on Rotten Tomatoes further exhibiting its success among the novel fans and the rest of the public. But, will the story not continue?
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“It’s A Bummer”: ‘Shogun’ Creator On The Show’s End
Despite ‘Shogun‘ garnering worldwide attention, the creators told The Hollywood Reporter that they had never planned on making a season 2, as the series was labeled as a ‘limited series’. “We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence. We love how the book ends; it was one of the reasons why we both knew we wanted to do it and we ended in exactly that place,” said Justin Marks.
After crushing the hopes of the fans of the miniseries, Mark claimed that he understood the disappointment people had. However, this is what was planned all along. He added, “I’ve been party to this in the past with shows like this, where you build a whole factory, and it only pumps out 10 cars and closes up shop. It’s a bummer.”
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The Reason Behind ‘Shogun’ Season 2 Happening Now
After sweeping the awards season and being lauded by fans, the creators understood the need for Season 2 of ‘Shogun‘. The big announcement was made about the continuation of the story. Now, there’ll be two additional seasons of the drama series. Marks revealed, “There were a lot of questions that we felt were still unanswered in the story. Not the least of which is that the title character doesn’t become the title character. And yeah, that’s really when you have history on your side, what you don’t have on your side is this wonderful book moving forward. There are no roads where we’re going.”
He added, “We know how all of this ends in the final moment. And once we saw that moment, we said, ‘Oh, now we have to get to that. Now we have to do that.’ And that felt much more honest in the way we were searching.”
What’s confirmed about Season 2 is that Hiroyuki Sanada will return as Lord Toranaga. The actor is quite excited as he didn’t get to be Shogun, the leader of Japan, by the conclusion of the series. So, that’ll be an interesting development as the story moves forward. There’ll also be ten episodes in the second season of ‘Shogun‘. Fans are rightly excited!
