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FX’s historical drama Shogun just wrapped up its first season. It’s billed as a miniseries with a beginning, middle, and end contained in one season. But it’s been very popular and well-received, and many are wondering if there could be another season or a spin-off. Series co-creator Justin Marks has now said he would be open to the idea if they found the right story.
“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. I think if we had a story, if we could find a story, we would be open to it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “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 question is probably yes, but Marks said a concern is that a potential Season 2 would take the story beyond what author James Clavell wrote.
“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,” Marks said.
Would Marks and co-creator Rachel Kondo be interested in adapting Clavell’s other books in The Asian Saga? Marks said he’s currently reading Tai-Pan and said that’s a great book, but it’s too to so say if there could a series based on it.
“It’s completely different. It’s about Hong Kong in the early days, a totally different world, so it’s not just playing the hits. He’s conjuring new vivid characters that stand 75,000 feet tall all at once,” Marks said. “And I think when you look at Shogun, that’s part of what Clavell did. We were given these characters who were really so colorful and accessible, which is a hard magic to conjure as a novelist and as a writer.”
FX does have a history with anthology shows, as Fargo and American Horror Story both fall into that category and have enjoyed success over the years. Marks said the comparison to Fargo doesn’t exactly work, though.
“It’s tough because Fargo, you’re still telling different threads of the same place, whereas The Asian Saga goes all over the place for good reason. So it’s hard. You’re not actually building off that same language in the same way.”
All 10 episodes of Shogun are streaming now. The show takes place in Japan in the year 1600 at the start of a civil war. The story focuses on Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) as his enemies unite against him. As that’s happening, a European ship is marooned nearby, and navigator John Blackthrone (Cosmo Jarvis) gets involved in the story.
Shogun the book was published in 1975, and Paramount first adapted it for a TV show in 1980.
