From the moment the first two episodes dropped on Hulu and FX until the last episode earlier this week, Shōgun has been the subject of many discussions. People have been comparing it to Game of Thrones, and using it as an example to prove that the week-to-week release model is better than the binge model like Fallout’s recent release. Now that it’s ended some new discourse has popped up regarding whether there will be a season two of the hit historical drama. But, it’s worth contemplating whether or not there should be one, because if you think about it, Shōgun doesn’t need a season 2.
The first season of Shōgun was close to perfect, establishing the characters and setting from James Clavell’s original book. With great writing and stellar performances, you could count on an hour of entertaining television each week. But, the events in the final episode mirror the book’s ending. While there are other novels in the series, they don’t follow the same characters that you’ve come to know in Shōgun. It is becoming increasingly rare that one-offs stay that way these days, so let’s talk about what a second season of Shōgun could look like.
The following will feature spoilers for the last episode of Shōgun.
Will There Be a Shōgun Season 2?
As of writing, there has only been a conversation regarding a possible season 2 of Shōgun from the show’s creators, Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Marks says, in response to a question about a second season, “I think if we had a story, if we could find a story, we would be open to it.” Shōgun has a fairly definitive ending, so to continue the story of Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and the Anjin (Cosmo Jarvis), the creators would need to invent something new, something interesting enough to continue the series.
While compared to Game of Thrones, Shōgun doesn’t need to be Game of Thrones. Even though we don’t know what happens to Toranaga after the events of the last episode, his final conversation with Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) sets up the events well. There’s no way things with Kazunari (Takehiro Hira) won’t turn out the way he thinks (the way we see it turn out on the battlefield) because everything in the series was orchestrated by Toranaga. He’s simply five steps ahead of everybody else, playing several people against one another.
So, if we know what happens, what would a Shōgun season 2 entail? They could continue Toranaga’s story, maybe even after he becomes Shōgun. But, do we want something that could potentially turn into the last season of Game of Thrones? A well-paced story turned into a bull in a china shop by the end? No, nobody wants a rushed story in favor of a second season. Think of Chernobyl, Band of Brothers, or even the original Shōgun miniseries from 1980. Sometimes it’s good to let a great miniseries stay a great miniseries.
