“Shōgun” is a new adaptation of the best-selling novel by James Clavell streaming on Hulu.
Let’s find out some trivia and facts about the series.
- Shōgun is an American historical drama television limited series
- It is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell
- The novel was previously adapted into a 1980 television miniseries
- The series is set to premiere with its first two episodes on February 27, 2024, on Hulu and FX
- With new episodes of the 10-episode series then releasing weekly
- Shōgun follows the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai
- John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him
- Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals
- Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance
- Clavell’s Shōgun is a fictionalized version of real events and history
- The character of Blackthorne is loosely based on the historical English navigator William Adams
- In Japan he rose to become a samurai under the strongest powerful daimyo and later the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu
- His life and reign lasted from 1543 to 1616
- And on whom Shogun’s character Yoshii Toranaga is based
- During the Television Critics Association’s annual summer press tour in August 2018, FX announced it would make a new adaptation of the 1975 novel Shōgun by James Clavell
- It had given the production a straight-to-series order
- Executive producers were expected to include Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Michael De Luca, Michaela Clavell, Tim Van Patten, Eugene Kelly, and Ronan Bennett
- Rachel Bennette is set as a supervising producer
- Tom Winchester as a producer, Georgina Pope as a co-producer, and Eriko Miyagawa as an associate producer
- Patten will also direct the series, and Bennett will also write
- FX Productions is slated to serve as the production company for the series. Sanada serves as a producer
- Principal photography for the series was scheduled to commence in March 2019 in Japan and the United Kingdom,[18] but was delayed because the network felt that the production wasn’t in good enough shape and that they wanted to aim higher.[19] Star Hiroyuki Sanada did a single day of filming in 2019 in order for FX to retain the rights to the property as the series was being retooled.[20]
- In January 2020, it was revealed that after original writer Ronan Bennett was no longer available to keep working on scripts
- They started over from scratch with new writer and executive producer Justin Marks, working alongside his wife, supervising producer Rachel Kondo
- The series’ writing team also includes co-executive producer Shannon Goss, consulting producer Matt Lambert, script editor Maegan Houang, and staff writer Emily Yoshida
- On September 22, 2021, principal photography for the series began in Vancouver, the United Kingdom, and Japan
- Lasting until June 30, 2022
- This was a full two months longer than expected
- A Japanese pine tree used on set was donated and planted after filming to the City Hall of Port Moody
- On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 100% rating
- Based on 34 critics
- The website’s critics consensus is, “Visually sumptuous and enriched with cultural verisimilitude, Shōgun is an epic reimagining that outdoes the original”
- On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 83 out of 100
- Based on 22 critics
- Indicating “universal acclaim”
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