Shōgun is here for a good time, not for a long time, creators say
"We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence," creator Justin Marks said, not saving anything for a Season 2
FX’s adaptation of Shōgun is pretty unquestionably the TV show of the moment, at the moment, with the Hiroyuki Sanada-starring adaptation of James Clavell’s classic historical novel earning both big ratings, and hefty critical buzz, after the release of its first three episodes over the last few weeks. But don’t let yourself get too settled in to its world of 17th century feudal Japan, Shōgun heads: Series creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks have made it clear that they’re here for a good time, not for a long time, as far as a potential second season is concerned.
This is per a long, wide-ranging interview Kondo and Marks gave to THR this week, which explored all manner of facets of the show’s long production—including the fact that its first season will end at the same point as Clavell’s book. “We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence,” Marks said. “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.”
The duo—who are married, and who employ a lot of “new baby” language talk when discussing the series—do acknowledge that it’s kind of a “bummer” to “build a whole factory, and it only pumps out 10 cars and closes up shop,” citing the fact that they and their crew have gotten really, genuinely good at making the TV show Shōgun over the last few years. They also don’t outright say “no season 2, ever,” because, c’mon, this is TV—someone is always going to pitch another season of something successful, even if they have to acquire, adapt, or outright commission different source material to do it.
Shōgun’s 10-episode first (only?) season is set to wrap up on April 23.