“Shōgun” Creators Reveal Early Plan For Seasons Two & Three
Last month, Disney announced that following the huge success of the FX limited series, “Shōgun”, it was working with the estate of James Clavell to develop the saga with two additional seasons of the drama series.
The series is set in Japan in 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.
During a recent interview with THR to promote the show, the creators, Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, who are married, revealed some new details on how they are developing the next two seasons ahead of the writer’s room beginning this summer.
Rachel Kondo revealed that they started plotting a potential second season back in December and are at the“arguing” stage of development.
“And shooting down each other’s ideas. No, there’s a lot of chaos but creative chaos, where we’re throwing everything that we have at the wall, seeing what sticks. It’s been exciting and nerve-wracking because, obviously, this is uncharted territory — we don’t have a roadmap, we just have history.”
“How did he curate, which events, which characters, which characters can you conveniently combine — those sorts of things that kind of allow you to make something new.”
Justin Marks also shared that they have an idea of where the series will end.
“There’s a lot of great conspiracy theory in history, a lot of different theories about, ‘Oh, it was said that this went on, but this really went on,’ and those little darker corners are what we’ve really enjoyed exploring. The third season is really an ending. We know where it starts, and we know where it ends, and we know who is there on that journey. We’re just focusing on part two right now to really make sure we can get to that point. But part two is, as second chapters go, kind of a darker chapter.”
It took over five years for FX to make the first season of “Shōgun” and while they will want to strike while the iron is hot, it will likely be many years until we see a second season, but it is also great to see they’ve got a plan on how to expand the story, but also have a ending in mind, since so many shows get lost in later seasons, when there’s no direction on where it’s going.
You can watch the first season of “Shōgun” on Hulu and Hulu On Disney+ in the United States and on Disney+ around the world.
Roger’s Take: On one hand, I’m looking forward to seeing more of the “Shōgun” world, since I really enjoyed the first season, but on the other hand, I’m still a little torn on there being more seasons, because they aren’t based on the original story. But hopefully, and I have much more faith in FX for this, is they take the time to do it properly and don’t rush it.
Are you looking forward to watching more seasons of “Shōgun”? Let me know on social media!