Could Shogun Season 2 Actually Happen?

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Shōgun on FX (and Hulu!) has been the surprise TV hit of the spring thanks to its impressive production values, great performances, and a complex and dramatic historical tale set in feudal Japan that hits the same sweet spot that Game of Thrones did. Naturally, now that Season 1 has wrapped up, the series' fans are clamoring for more Shōgun. Normally, a second season would be assured under these circumstances, but things are a little different for Shōgun.

That's because Shōgun is a limited series based on a novel, and this first season of the series took us all the way to the end of the story. For FX to produce a second season, series creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks and the network would have to go beyond the source material and tell an original story. And that's a very different sort of task than adapting the book was, and one that would be very easy to screw up.

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Shōgun, based on the novel of the same name by author James Clavell, tells the story of how shipwrecked British sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) in 1600s Japan gets tangled up with Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai) during Toranaga's rise to power. It's a beloved story for a reason — the political drama is enthralling and made for great television.

Despite the story from the Shōgun novel being completed, that doesn't necessarily preclude a second season from happening. Shōgun itself is a fictionalized version of a real story of how the Tokugawa shogunate came to power, and so there's more that the series could mine there. And Shōgun co-showrunners Kondo and Marks are theoretically open to the idea. But only theoretically at this stage, judging by comments Marks made in The Hollywood Reporter.

"I keep saying it's like we want to let everyone be on the same page when it comes to the book. And hopefully now the TV audience and the book audience are on the same page with what the story is and where it resolves," Marks told THR. "I think if we had a story, if we could find a story, we would be open to it. But I don't think that anyone ever wants to be out over their skis without a roadmap and everything. And it's also just about, do people want more of it?"

The answer to that last question seems fairly obvious, since the show is so popular and is already being called the best show of 2024, but obviously there's plenty more to consider here.

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"It's also about, not even topping the book, but how do you even equal the roadmap that Clavell laid out? And I don't know if it's possible. I don't know if Clavell could have done it either. That's probably why he moved on to other books too, right? He knew what he had done. Yeah, it's a tough one," Marks said.

This is a common refrain for situations like this one: They'd like to do more Shōgun, but only if it makes sense and they're able to craft a worthy follow-up that won't embarrass anybody involved. It's probably not a discussion that will be settled quickly.

Shōgun is streaming on Hulu.