‘Shogun’ Just Ended. What Do the Creators Say About a Season 2?

[This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of FX’s Shogun.]

Shōgun masterminds Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo learn James Clavell’s novel cowl to cowl. Their social media consumption across the collection, nevertheless, has not been fairly as complete.

“We stay in Hawaii on the island of Maui with 70 chickens and roosters,” Marks tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And not one of the chickens on our property have seen Shōgun, to our information. So it’s been fairly quiet.”

“It’s not that quiet,” Kondo corrects, “however they’re not speaking about Shōgun.”

Marks and Kondo’s chickens are nearly the one ones not speaking about Shōgun. The FX collection has drawn to a detailed, and all season lengthy, it’s been an web darling, with unbelievable memes born out of the unbelievable present.

For example, there’s a picture floating round for the time being that includes Cosmo Jarvis and Anna Sawai as John Blackthorne and Girl Mariko, two of the important thing protagonists in Shōgun. The meme options Blackthorne (aka “The Anjin”) ranting about one thing in colourful language, adopted by Mariko offering a fragile, easier translation of his barbaric phrases. An instance may go one thing like this:

BLACKTHORNE: “How dare you bastards inform me Shōgun is ending for good! I don’t care in the event you’ve exhausted the supply materials, I don’t care that you’ve already tailored the whole thing of James Clavell’s ebook! There’s nothing else on tv fairly like this program and I demand you monsters proceed it directly!”

MARIKO: “The Anjin desires a second season of Shōgun.”

Hopefully, you get the concept. And, all of what this theoretical Blackthorne quote says is true.

Billed as a restricted collection, Shōgun is finished, a minimum of so far as Clavell’s unique novel is worried. It’s additionally true that there’s nothing on TV that fairly compares to the joys of watching FX’s high-budget occasion collection week in and week out, led in entrance of and behind the digicam by star-producer Hiroyuki Sanada. Early comparisons alongside the strains of “Sport of Thrones and Succession however make it feudal Japan” apart, the story of Shōgun unfolds like one of many heart-wrenching poems the late Mariko (who died within the surprising penultimate episode) would utter in a touching assembly together with her lord Toranaga (Sanada). 

Because it presently stands, Shōgun ends with a whole sufficient arc: Toranaga’s clandestine Crimson Sky plot was executed completely by Mariko, who sacrificed her personal life in explosive vogue, changing into one thing of a martyr that upends the power-hungry Lord Ishido’s plans to solidify his reign over Japan. The aforementioned “anjin” John Blackthorne stays in Japan to assist construct ships for Toranaga, whose future as the brand new shogun is all however assured on account of Mariko’s actions. 

The episode options Blackthorne dreaming about rising previous again residence in England. Although in actuality, he’s fated to stay in “The Japans” perpetually. Certainly, Clavell’s different books in “The Asian Saga,” a collection of novels primarily based across the continent with a minimum of minor ties to Shōgun, strongly counsel the Anjin does in actual fact stay out his days distant from his homeland. There are six novels in The Asian Saga that journey removed from the shores of Japan to Hong Kong, Singapore and Iran. May these tales present a template for future seasons offered below the Shōgun banner? Or, is it sufficient that the precise parallel historical past of Japan is ripe for adaptation? 

“Nobody is aware of what’s going to occur subsequent,” actor-producer Sanada instructed THR earlier within the season. “However we’ve historical past, actual historical past fashions, and clearly, we all know what occurred. So, yeah. All of it depends upon the viewers’s response.”

Properly, the viewers’s response is kind of clear now. Whether or not Marks and Kondo see a future or not? Properly, THR actually requested the married colleagues that query and lots of extra under, in what stands for now as a postmortem on the Shōgun collection finale. 

Shōgun struck a chord with viewers. What was it concerning the present, and even the fashionable TV second, that made it stand out from the very crowded pack?

JUSTIN MARKS For me, it’s the ebook. We speak about nice tales being timeless, and I believe Shōgun as a ebook is an ideal instance of that. It bears the cultural cobwebs on something that’s 50 years previous, and you are taking that for what it’s. And but there’s a core fact to the characters and the story and the setting that we as storytellers overlook too typically nowadays: you simply want an excellent story that you just actually can’t put down, which is the impact of studying the ebook. Once we see that, we wrap our arms round it as an viewers. I’m talking for myself as an viewers member, and Succession is a superb instance of this, too, the place you simply needed to really feel like that there’s one thing that takes me away to a spot that I’ve by no means been, and exhibits me characters who really feel like they actually exist and that they’ll shock me. That is every little thing that James Clavell does in Shōgun. So we have been simply attempting to not drop that baton.

RACHEL KONDO It took us 5 years to convey this to fruition and double that period of time for FX. However I really feel like perhaps the explanation why it may be scratching at some itch in the present day is as a result of it’s as if we took one thing from every of these years and drew out one thing from pre-pandemic, pandemic and regardless of the subsequent expertise was. 5 years is a very long time. And it was a privilege to have had that point, and we have been in a position to take our time. And I believe that every of us grew a lot inside the 5 years, and a few of us aged tremendously inside these 5 years. And I believe that each single one that labored on this poured that development and that have of time and storytelling into the present. And perhaps that’s an summary mind-set about it, however I really feel like that accumulates and it finally ends up saying one thing about time and expertise.

I’m interested by what it was like for you once you have been encountering a few of Shōgun‘s largest moments for the primary time as a reader. For instance, Mariko’s dying. Do you bear in mind the place you have been once you first learn that a part of the ebook?

KONDO I do. I’m going to behave it out for you. Studying, studying, studying, studying, studying… (Mimics her head exploding.) After which I needed to take a break from studying for a day as a result of I went by the 5 phases of grief. As a result of then I used to be like, “oh, nicely, clearly she comes again as a ghost,” and then you definitely’re studying on, since you’re like, “nicely, she’s coming again” … all this denial. Denial and ultimately acceptance, since you perceive what she gave her life for. However I bear in mind slamming that ebook closed being like, “Nope, not taking place.”

MARKS I used to be 80 pages forward of her at that time in studying. And so I used to be simply sitting, ready. I knew the place she can be, and I quietly learn that, after which I simply sat on the eating room desk ready for Rachel to come back into the room. And as quickly as she stepped into the doorway, I knew on her face what had occurred. 

KONDO And he handed me a bottle of wine. By the point anybody reads this, it’ll be on the market. However it’ll be actually fascinating to see [reactions to Mariko’s death]. If folks reacted how we did once we learn that part, there ought to be riots within the streets over what Clavell did. But in addition what a fantastic solution to make a press release of every little thing that Mariko had been denied all her life. She lived for one thing and she or he died for one thing. However extra importantly, I don’t suppose Mariko was notably fixated on dying. I believe she simply needed to stay for one thing. And in her dying, she lastly acquired that, and that’s triumph. There’s an actual magic to that. It was the second once we knew we needed to adapt this, which I’ve mentioned 11 instances over the course of unpacking the present! However it was positively the second that sealed it for me, her dying.

It will need to have been an enormous dialog, understanding how a lot her dying within the ebook devastated you, figuring out you needed to be extraordinarily calculated about the way you do that very same factor to the viewers.

MARKS Numerous liberties are taken within the final 4 episodes, though 9 is fairly loyal to the ebook. However actually the episodes six, seven, eight and 10 required plenty of modifications. Typically we felt like we have been the ebook’s therapists determining what it meant to say and kind of discovering a solution to make it environment friendly and financial within the house of tv. That was our massive job. However I believe the largest problem of Mariko’s dying on the finish of 9 is the sensation I hope that the viewers has, that we had as readers: “How is that this going to result in victory? How are they going to drag their method out of this one? There’s one episode left. How does this work? How does this really feel like a cheerful ending?” And a lot of Toranaga’s plan and James Clavell’s plotting, it’s like constructing a ship in a bottle and it simply appears like a large number and chaos. And also you’re similar to, “oh, nicely, this isn’t going to be a cheerful ending.” After which episode 10 simply elegantly pulls one string, and by that I imply James Clavell’s plotting, and impulsively it stands up and also you’re like, “oh, it was being constructed this entire time and we’re simply not paying consideration.”

KONDO Properly, we’re, however we don’t actually have the eyes to see it but.

MARKS There’s that nice second in Zoolander the place he says, “However why male fashions?” After which they clarify the plan, after which after they clarify the plan, he’s like, “However why male fashions?” I simply defined it to you! You simply noticed the entire thing occur! It’s how I felt so typically once I was studying the ebook, as a result of till you actually perceive how this world works and the way Toranaga works, you don’t see how victory has been achieved as a result of it’s greater than the dimensions of all of our lives.

You utilize Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) as a personality who asks Toranaga to principally clarify the plot. Does that make him the Derek Zoolander of Shōgun?

MARKS Form of! (Laughs.) That scene… you inform a lifeless man the longer term, to cite Rachel. And we knew that the one solution to get to Toranaga’s internal monologue was to kind of whisper it right into a nicely, so to talk. And what higher nicely to whisper to than a person who was on the edge of dying? In some methods, Yabushige is the viewers, and he’s all the time the viewers as a result of he seems like he’s all the time craving that info and he’s sensible sufficient to grasp how the world works. However he’s additionally type of simply somebody who lives for in the present day and all the time lives for in the present day.

KONDO However he’s additionally flopping round, a carp within the pond. And that felt very very similar to us, attempting to determine inform the story, grabbing at an invisible fish at a sure level when attempting to grasp the place we’d been led. 

Are you able to clarify the opening scene of the finale, the dramatization of Blackthorne dreaming a few potential future?

MARKS Properly, for Blackthorne, it’s the dream of a dream that he witnesses to start with that you just suppose is all of the sudden us attempting to border the episode as if it have been an previous man trying again on his life crammed with remorse solely to come back to this precipice second for Blackthorne, which [happened earlier] within the ebook, of him promising to commit seppuku. And we moved it to the tip of the story, as a result of we felt that that was the most effective tribute to Clavell and to the character to do it that method.

KONDO And I believe when he provides to second Mariko, that is the one factor he doesn’t need to do, however he desires to face for one thing, which means he desires to assist her. So I believe that that’s his first preliminary rush with it. 

MARKS On the finish, it’s actually this second the place you notice it’s not the story of an previous man trying again crammed with remorse. However a younger man trying ahead, seeing that path and killing that self in that second and selecting this path, no matter it might convey.

Toranaga tells Yabushige what’s going to occur sooner or later. We see a hazy model of a remaining battle, however we’re denied the precise battle. Was {that a} tough choice in any respect?

MARKS I believe the ebook denies us this, too. And that’s what I actually respect concerning the ebook is that you just actually, even turning the final web page, you’re like, however what about…? And also you notice it doesn’t matter in the event you’ve actually understood what this story is attempting to be. By no means for a second within the author’s room did we ever actually say that we have been after [a final battle]. Not as a result of we couldn’t afford it — though we couldn’t. However as a result of Clavell was not telling that type of story. 

KONDO It’s that line from Toranaga: “Why is it all the time that the people who find themselves so keen to enter battle are those who’ve by no means been in it?” 

Right here’s the inevitable season two query. Is it going to occur?

MARKS I don’t know. I maintain saying it’s like we need to let everybody be on the identical web page relating to the ebook. And hopefully now the TV viewers and the ebook viewers are on the identical web page with what the story is and the place it resolves. I believe if we had a narrative, if we may discover a story, we might be open to it. However I don’t suppose that anybody ever desires to be out over their skis with no roadmap and every little thing. And it’s additionally nearly, do folks need extra of it?

Sure. The reply is sure.

MARKS However it’s additionally about, not even topping the ebook, however, how do you even equal the roadmap that Clavell laid out? And I don’t know if it’s potential. I don’t know if Clavell may have accomplished it both. That’s in all probability why he moved on to different books too, proper? He knew what he had accomplished. Yeah, it’s a troublesome one.

Would you be all for any of his different books in The Asian Saga that you possibly can put below the Shōgun billing?

MARK: Oh, gosh. Properly, I can solely converse for myself studying Tai-Pan proper now, simply apropos of nothing, actually, and what an excellent ebook. I’ve been telling Rachel about it as I’ve been studying it and saying, “Properly! He did it once more.” However it’s fully totally different. It’s about Hong Kong within the early days, a very totally different world, so it’s not simply enjoying the hits. He’s conjuring new vivid characters that stand 75,000 toes tall . And I believe once you take a look at Shōgun, that’s a part of what Clavell did. We got these characters who have been actually so colourful and accessible, which is a tough magic to conjure as a novelist and as a author.

I’ll simply say, between Fargo and American Horror Story, FX has a confirmed monitor file with anthology collection. 

MARKS Yeah. However it’s powerful as a result of Fargo, you’re nonetheless telling totally different threads of the identical place, whereas The Asian Saga goes everywhere for good motive. So it’s onerous. You’re not really constructing off that very same language in the identical method. 

After I requested Hiro about extra Shogun, he appeared open to it. 

KONDO Have you ever spoken to Cosmo?

No, I’d like to.

KONDO Any individual requested him [about a second season] and he was attempting to determine phrase what he was going to say. After which impulsively, he mentioned one thing about how as he was doing this present, he grew to become a pupil of Japanese historical past, and there’s a lot of it. And that was his reply.

That’s principally what Hiro mentioned! It’s a great reply.

KONDO It’s a good reply.

Shōgun is now streaming on Hulu.