FX’s Shōgun came to an end last night, revealing how Mariko’s (Anna Sawai) actions in Episode 9 truly did set Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) up for ultimate victory. Ishido’s (Takehiro Hira) brutish missteps handling Mariko’s actions in the penultimate episode made the heir’s mother, Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido), realize that she had perhaps made a mistake engaging herself to the lowborn, bloodthirsty bureaucrat… Maybe she should form an alliance with, uh, someone else?
**Spoilers for Shōgun Episode 10 “A Dream of a Dream,” now streaming on Hulu**
Yes, so Shōgun ends with Toranaga explaining to the doomed Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) and the audience what the immediate future holds for him and his supporters. Lady Ochiba has sent him a secret message promising to abandon Ishido at the pivotal moment in which Toranaga will meet the other regents on the battlefield. Without the support of the heir’s mother — and the heir’s standard — Ishido’s forces will be in the legal wrong. Meaning, the other regents will be able to swiftly turn to Toranaga’s side, destroying Ishido, and making Toranaga Shōgun. (James Clavell’s book also specifies that Ochiba will marry Toranaga instead of Ishido, cementing them as a power couple.)
Yabushige then commits seppuku as punishment for betraying Toranaga and Mariko in Episode 9, leaving Toranaga to rule over Japan from his stronghold in Edo, the future Tokyo. Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) embraces life under Toranaga’s rule, even going so far as to befriend Mariko’s husband Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe), and Fuji (Moeka Hoshi) leaves Blackthorne’s service as consort — not to join her dead husband and son, but to become a nun.
Okay, but what happens next? Will there be a Shōgun Season 2? Are there more episodes of Shōgun still to come?
Well, Shōgun was intended to be a limited series, but Decider recently asked the show’s co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo if the show’s wild success had opened the door for more…
Will There Be a Shōgun Season 2? What the Creators Reveled about a Possible Shōgun-verse, Sequels, Spin-Offs…
While it’s been understood that Shōgun was only intended to be a one and done limited series, when Decider spoke to series co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo about continuing the story, Marks coyly said, “We will answer very carefully, you know, just for a variety of reasons.”
“Are there other stories to tell of the characters who survived this show? Yes. Are there other stories to tell of leading up to things?” He wondered aloud.
For what it’s worth, James Clavell did write other books set at different times in Asian history that could be adapted, but Decider specifically asked if they would want to continue Shōgun‘s story. After all, we don’t see exactly how Toranaga becomes Shōgun and the book teases two future political marriages that would be fascinating to explore: Toranaga and Ochiba and, uh…Blackthorne and the courtesan Kiku (Yuka Kouri)!!!
“The question is, are [these stories] any better than the book? Than what was told? And we don’t know,” Marks said. “And I like saying, ‘I don’t know,’ because it opens lots of doors to getting better.”
One thing both Marks and Kondo admitted was that when they were shooting Shōgun, they had a “whole fantasy” of what a potential “Shōgun-verse” would look like, “where you can sort of open doors sideways.”
“I would love to see honestly — like, this is not a pitch for an actual show, this is just our fantasy, fanfiction of the show,” Marks warned. “Like what would the Yabushige Chronicles look like?”
“Like, Yabushige goes to London, you know?” Rachel Kondo said.
“Oh my God. Can you imagine? Like, just truly great,” Marks said of the fanfiction-esque idea. “Like seeing him and Ikawa Jikkyu from the book, like his rival, like the guy who was like his Mozart/Salieri relationship. I love every time you mention [Ikawa Jikkyu’s] name, [Yabushige] would just get so mad.”
“It’s like, I don’t know. So those are all like fun fanfiction things…but if there were ever something to do, it would just have to be better than what was done. And I don’t know if we know something that’s better. So, yeah, kind of just have to leave it at that.”
So while there’s no plans to continue the story of Shōgun, there have been fantasies to take the series and its characters in other directions.
