Why there won’t be Shōgun Season 2? Reasons behind the series not getting a sequel explained

As FX’s Shōgun ended its run with the 10th episode on a puzzling note, leaving the audience baffled, the anticipation for a Shōgun Season 2 on the horizon is reaching a fever pitch. Based on James Clavell’s novel of the same name, the historical epic garnered a lot of praise from fans worldwide. Its amazing adaptation kept the viewers tuning into the respective platform Tuesday throughout its run.

As per many streaming aggregators, Shōgun was the most streamed show across all platforms and also the most-watched show in the United States, Canada, and more. With 114 critics giving the series a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average of 8.6/10, the show became an indispensable classic.

Given the show’s engaging storyline, fascinating characters, the setting of the Japanese feudal era, and more, there’s everything that supports the thought that Shōgun Season 2 should be greenlit soon. However, unfortunately, Episode 10 of Season 1 is the end of the line.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for FX’s Shōgun. Reader’s discretion is advised.

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Shōgun Season 2 has no source material to adapt from

Even before the series was just halfway through, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Marks, one of the two showrunners, besides his wife Rachel Kondo, revealed that the end of the series was where the book ended. Here’s what Mark had to say regarding why Shōgun Season 2 is never happening:

"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. And I’ve been party to this in the past with shows like this, where you build a whole factory, and it only pumps out ten cars and closes up shop. It’s a bummer."

After the interviewer asked once again regarding the possibility of Shōgun Season 2, here's what Mark replied:

"I don’t know. I keep saying it’s like we want to let everyone be on the same page when it comes to the book. And hopefully now the TV audience and the book audience are on the same page with what the story is and where it resolves. I think if we had a story, if we could find a story, we would be open to it. But I don’t think that anyone ever wants to be out over their skis without a roadmap and everything. And it’s also just about, do people want more of it?"

Both Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks are content with where the story ends in the book and the adaptation, making it clear that there will be no Shōgun Season 2. However, the creator has likely hinted at the possibility of a second installment by revealing that he has moved on to the other installments in The Asian Saga.

Marks has disclosed that he has started reading Tai-Pan, the second book by the author after Shōgun that follows the story of Dirk Struan:

"Oh, gosh. Well, I can only speak for myself reading Tai-Pan right now, just apropos of nothing, honestly, and what a great book. I’ve been telling Rachel about it as I’ve been reading it and saying, 'Well! He did it again.' But it’s completely different. It’s about Hong Kong in the early days, a totally different world, so it’s not just playing the hits."

Marks continues by praising the author for his brilliant work:

"He’s conjuring new vivid characters that stand 75,000 feet tall all at once. And I think when you look at Shōgun, that’s part of what Clavell did. We were given these characters who were really so colorful and accessible, which is a hard magic to conjure as a novelist and as a writer."

With that, it is very unlikely that Shōgun Season 2 will ever get confirmed. However, fans of the show anticipating a similar essence in the storyline can expect the sequel and beyond to be part of the anthology. Given there are five more books, each focused on a different character from a different lime, fans can anticipate a diverse range of stories in future adaptations.

As witnessed in the final moments of Season 1, Toranaga narrated the future events to Yabushige, proclaiming how his ascension as the shogun and Ishido's defeat was inevitable. Shōgun Season 2 continuing the story would have been a great addition, but given the clarification by the creators, it was wise to wrap the story around where the book ended.

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Stay tuned for more news and updates on other shows and movies as 2024 progresses.