Shōgun, the new series on the way from FX Networks, marks the second major TV adaptation of James Clavell’s classic novel. First published in 1975, the book was well received by critics and became a best seller despite being a tome that was over a thousand pages. It’s success as a book lead to the initial television adaptation, a nine-hour miniseries that ran on NBC in September of 1980. Now over forty years later, FX Networks is bringing a whole new version of the novel to life, and one that James Clavell’s daughter Michaela Clavell believes he would enjoy very much.
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Speaking with ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview for FX Networks’s Shōgun, we asked Clavell (who serves as an executive producer on the series) how her father felt about the original series and how he might feel abut the new one. Since James Clavell was an EP on the original series he had a lot of love for it, but there are a lot of advantages to doing a new adaptation of Shōgun.
“He was very proud of the first one which was done in the late seventies, and that’s the difference really, time,” Clavell said. “We have a lot more technology on our side. We have a much more sophisticated viewer on our side. So you don’t have to start from scratch because, to put it in perspective, many people didn’t know what sushi was in the late seventies.”
With the new adaptation however they were interested in making it new and relevant in the modern age. As soon as development started it came with a clear mandate, create it from the ground up from the Japanese perspective. Clavell adds:
“If you are in the book, the books are very much along those same lines as well. Very much into the mind of the Japanese at that time, the culture, and that’s the whole point, entering a different world. think we were able to make this relevant and in a way that he would have loved very, very much because it is very true to the whole breadth of the book. Not just the romance and the perspective of ‘the stranger in a strange land’ kind of a thing which, as Justin (Marks) and Rachel (Kondo, co-creators) have said, it’s been done, we wanted to do something different. Well, all you had to do was go to the book, read the book and it’s all there, a whole different perspective then was shown and able to be shown at that time, different period. So I think he’d be stunned at the beauty and the complexity of this Shōgun, which is true to the book.”
What is Shōgun about?
FX Networks describes Shōgun as follows:
Set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war, producer Hiroyuki Sanada stars as “Lord Yoshii Toranaga” who is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him. When a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village, its English pilot, “John Blackthorne” (Cosmo Jarvis), comes bearing secrets that could help Toranaga tip the scales of power and devastate the formidable influence of Blackthorne’s own enemies – the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants. Toranaga’s and Blackthorne’s fates become inextricably tied to their translator, “Toda Mariko” (Anna Sawai), a mysterious Christian noblewoman and the last of a disgraced line. While serving her lord amidst this fraught political landscape, Mariko must reconcile her newfound companionship with Blackthorne, her commitment to the faith that saved her and her duty to her late father.
Shōgun cast
In addition to Hiroyuki Sanada stars taking on the role of Lord Yoshii Toranaga, the cast for Shōgun also includes Tadanobu Asano as “Kashigi Yabushige,” a notorious backstabber and close ally of Toranaga; Hiroto Kanai as “Kashigi Omi,” the young leader of the fishing village where Blackthorne’s ship was found; Takehiro Hira as “Ishido Kazunari,” a powerful bureaucrat who is Toranaga’s chief rival; Moeka Hoshi as “Usami Fuji,” a widow who must find new purpose amidst her lord’s fight; Tokuma Nishioka as “Toda Hiromatsu,” Toranaga’s trusted general and closest friend; Shinnosuke Abe as “Toda Hirokatsu” (“Buntaro”), Mariko’s jealous husband; Yuki Kura as “Yoshii Nagakado,” the brash son of Toranaga with a strong desire to prove himself; Yuka Kouri as “Kiku,” a courtesan renowned for her artistry throughout Japan; and Fumi Nikaido as “Ochiba no Kata,” the revered mother of the heir who will stop at nothing to put an end to Toranaga and his threat to her son’s power.
The first two episodes of FX’s Shōgun premiere February 27th on Hulu and FX
