FX’s Emmy-record-breaking action samurai series is officially coming back for a second season, and Season 2 of Shogun recently received its biggest update yet. A year and a half after Season 1 debuted on Hulu/Disney+, the second season has set its official production start date. With the news of Season 2’s filming comes another incredibly important update for the hit samurai drama (based on the novel by James Clavell)… who will and won’t be returning for Season 2. It’s anyone’s guess, as the second season doesn’t have a sequel novel to pull from, meaning Season 2 will be an entirely original story. So, with that in mind, here’s who will and won’t be returning for Shogun Season 2, and how that will affect the potential plot. Thanks to a new report from Deadline, we now know that Shogun Season 2 will begin production in January 2026. Just as Season 1 did, the second season will be shot primarily in Vancouver, Canada. No official release date has been revealed. However, with the series shooting in early 2026, don’t expect Shogun’s second season to hit your screen any earlier than mid/late 2027 (and even that’s being optimistic). The most exciting part of the new report is Season 2’s cast. It was already confirmed that Hiroyuki Sanada (who is also an executive producer on the show) will return as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. However, it has now been confirmed that Cosmo Jarvis will officially be back as John Blackthorne in Season 2, the English pilot/navigator who finds himself shipwrecked in Japan and caught between the Daimyo’s battle for power. Unfortunately, Anna Sawai won’t be back as the scene-stealing Lady Mariko in Season 2, as *spoiler alert* it’s a bit hard to survive being blown to smithereens. Although some other favorites from Season 1 will be back for a second battle, including Fumi Nikaido as Ochiba, Shinnosuke Abe as Buntaro, Hiroto Kanai as Omi, Yoriko Doguchi as Kiri, Tommy Bastow as Albito, Yuko Miyamoto as Gin, Eita Okuno as Saeki, and Yuka Kouri as Kiku. Also joining Sanada and Jarvis for the second season are Asami Kizukawa as Aya, Masataka Kubota as Hyuga, Sho Kenata as Hidenobu, Takaaki Enoki as Lord Ito, and Jun Kunimura as Goda.
What to Expect From ‘Shogun’ Season 2

Hiroyuki Sanada in ShogunFX/Hulu

This is the part of the article where we’d normally tell you who the new characters are. However, as previously mentioned, Season 2 will be a completely original story. Season 1 adapted the entirety of James Clavell’s gargantuan novel (albeit with some changes) and, as a result, the plot and identity of the new characters in Season 2 are known only by the writers and the actors. There is, of course, some real history we can pull from. The story is set at the start of the 17th Century, and the events of the story would be promptly followed by the real Battle of Sekigahara, which lasted only six hours as Tokugawa Ieyasu (whom Lord Toranaga is based on) dominated with a stronger force. The battle resulted in Tokugawa being named Shogun, with his family ruling the nation (mostly) peacefully for over 250 years. Given that the battle led to one of the longest periods of peace in Japanese history, it will be interesting to see how FX’s Shogun alters events in Season 2.

Release Date

2024 – 2025

Network

FX, Hulu

Directors

Fred Toye, Jonathan van Tulleken, Charlotte Brändström, Takeshi Fukunaga, Hiromi Kamata

Writers

Rachel Kondo