When talking about big shoes to fill when it comes to remakes, especially on TV, Shogun is definitely one of those. We talked about this back in 2013 when Fox was looking at going back to the James Clavell novel, which they can admittedly make in a lot of different ways now and potentially more true to the source material. The miniseries ran back in 1980 and was twelve hours long and ranked as one of the biggest TV airings in history. The remake will be produced by Michael De Luca (The Social Network) and Nigel Williams (Elizabeth I).
Since then, the media landscape has changed a lot and the show is now set for FX which will get it some Hulu streaming pretty quickly as well with the deal they have in place there.
After getting some leads cast previously, Deadline is now revealing more additions. These include Anna Sawai, recently seen in F9: The Final Saga, along with Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka, Takehiro Hira, Ako, Shinnosuke Abe, Yasunari Takeshima, Hiroto Kanai, Toshi Toda, Hiro Kanagawa, Nestor Carbonell, Yuki Kura, Tommy Bastow, Moeka Hoshi, Yoriko Doguchi, and Yuka Kouri.
Production is underway with Jonathan van Tulleken directing the first two episodes in Vancouver.
The previous main roles revealed Hiroyuki Sanada will play Yoshii Toranaga while Cosmo Jarvis will play John Blackthorne. These roles were played by Toshiro Mifune and Richard Chamberlain respectively. The role of Lady Mariko is still being decided upon, which was originally played by Yoko Shimada.
Sanada’s Yoshii Toranaga is a living legend. He is a powerful daimyo from a feared lineage, isolated and outnumbered by his enemies in Osaka Castle when the story begins. But little does anyone realize that Toranaga is a brilliant strategist, a master of the long game, and the holder of Japan’s ultimate fate.
Jarvis’ John Blackthorne is a restless English pilot in search of a destiny far from the world he was born into. His mission is to forge a path into the Pacific islands and disrupt Portuguese and Spanish interests in Japan. But Blackthorne finds more than he bargained for when his ship washes ashore within the territory of Toranaga, a deadly warlord who becomes his captor and spiritual mentor.
The project has set Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo to write the scripts for it. Marks’ work on Counterpart has me very excited for this and he’s serving as an executive producer along with original author James Clavell’s daughter Michaela Clavell. Rachel Kondo is on board as a co-executive producer.
Original concept: John Blackthorne, an English ship pilot, whose vessel wrecked upon the Japanese coast in the early 17th century is forced to deal with the two most powerful men in Japan in these days. He is thrown in the midst of a war between Toranaga and Ishido, who struggle for the title of Shogun which will give ultimate power to the one who possesses it.
