#FIRSTLOOK: “SHŌGUN” NEW AND RETURNING CAST FOR SEASON TWO

The global hit drama series FX’s Shōgun today announced the new and returning cast joining the series for the second season as well as the directors and writers lined up for the next chapter of the Emmy® Award-winning show, which is set over a decade after the events of the first season. In Canada, season two will stream on Hulu on Disney+ and air on the FX channel.

With season two set to begin production in Vancouver in January, the cast, directors and writers were announced as part of The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific Disney+ Originals Preview currently underway in Hong Kong.

Newly added to the cast include Asami Kizukawa (“Aya”), Masataka Kubota (“Hyūga”), Sho Kaneta (“Hidenobu”), Takaaki Enoki (“Lord Ito”) and Jun Kunimura (“Gōda”).

Emmy® Award Winner Hiroyuki Sanada (“Toranaga”) and Cosmo Jarvis (“Blackthorne”) lead the stellar cast of returning stars, including Fumi Nikaidô (“Ochiba”), Shinnosuke Abe (“Buntaro”), Hiroto Kanai (“Omi”), Yoriko Dôguchi (“Kiri”), Tommy Bastow (“Alvito”), Yuko Miyamoto (“Gin”), Eita Okuno (“Saeki”) and Yuka Kouri (“Kiku”).

Two directors from the award-winning first season of Shōgun – Hiromi Kamata (Season 1, Episode 6 “Ladies of the Willow World”) and Takeshi Fukunaga (Season 1, Episode 7, “A Stick of Time”) – are set to direct on season two, with Anthony Byrne (FX’s Say Nothing), Kate Herron (Loki) and Justin Marks also set to direct episodes.

The writers on season two of Shōgun are Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks, Shannon Goss, Matt Lambert, Maegan Houang, Emily Yoshida, Caillin Puente and Sofie Somoroff.

In the first season, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Sanada) fought for his survival as his enemies in the Council of Regents united against him. When a mysterious European ship was found marooned in a nearby village, its English pilot John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) shared vital strategic secrets with Toranaga that tipped the scales of power in his favour to win a century-defining civil war.

Part two of Shōgun is set ten years after the events of the first season and continues the historically-inspired saga of these two men from different worlds whose fates are inextricably entwined.

Shōgun, an original adaptation of James Clavell’s bestselling novel, is created for television by Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks and produced by FX Productions. Marks and Kondo are Executive Producers alongside Michaela Clavell, Edward L. McDonnell and Michael De Luca and Hiroyuki Sanada. Cosmo Jarvis serves as Co-Executive Producer along with Eriko Miyagawa. The series is produced by FX Productions.

The first season of Shōgun won 18 Emmy® Awards, setting the record for the most Emmy Awards by a series in a single season. It was FX’s first series to win Outstanding Drama Series. Hiroyuki Sanada became the first Japanese actor to win the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Anna Sawai made history as the first actress of Asian descent to win Lead Actress in the same category. A global phenomenon, the show won numerous other awards, including the Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series – Drama, AFI TV Program of the Year, and top honors from SAG, WGA, DGA, PGA, TCA, the Independent Spirit Awards, among many others.

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