Justin Marks – the creator and showrunner of acclaimed series Shōgun – has provided an exciting update on season 2, exclusively telling RadioTimes.com that he and his team are "rushing it to screen."
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The series – which is based on the 1975 novel of the same by James Clavell and followed an earlier TV adaptation from 1980 – became a huge hit after debuting in February last year and was quickly picked up for a second run.
And it looks like steady progress is being made on the follow-up, which will stream on Disney Plus in the UK, with Marks explaining on the red carpet at the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises that, "We pick up in Vancouver, prep in a couple of months – in fact, I'm going in two weeks to scout out our first locations."
He added: "We start shooting in January – which is not enough time to get what we need to get off the ground, so we're rushing it to screen...
"It's a lot less time to make the show this time around than we had in the first season."
The first run took nine months to shoot – with production on the series taking place between September 2021 and June 2022.
Meanwhile star Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays Lord Yoshii Toranaga in the series, explained that "the writers' room is working so hard" on the next season.
He said: "We'd love to make season two follow season one's flavour of authenticity but also... even the people who know the real history, what happened in real life, we want to make them surprised."
Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga in Shōgun. Colin Bentley/FX
Responding to the success of season one, he added that he "could never have imagined" how well the show would do.
He said: "It was 70 per cent in Japanese, with subtitles... [I thought], 'Can people enjoy this?' – but after we released, we had great [reception from] viewers and critics... oh my gosh, much more than we expected."
The show won the award for Best International Programme at the BAFTAs, adding another prize to its already lengthy string of accolades.
And speaking at the winners' press conference after the show's win was announced, Marks teased some interesting details about what fans can expect in the second run.
"There's a 10-year time jump in part two and just given the history that we're working off of, I think it gives us a lot of ground to grow the show in a lot of exciting new directions," he said.
"What's most important is to honour the legacy of James Clavell's book when it comes to the characterisations and the brilliant plotting and world-building that went on and the great love stories... all of these things I think you can expect in the next season, especially the love story part."
Shōgun is a historical drama that follows English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) as he is shipwrecked in 17th-century Japan, becoming entangled in the nation's political intrigue.
The series had previously set a record as the most awarded single season of television in the history of the Emmys – winning 18 prizes including Outstanding Drama Series at the US awards show back in September 2024.
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
