On Thursday, FX dropped the trailer to Shōgun, the epic, 10-episode series based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel, which was adapted into an Emmy-winning miniseries on NBC in 1980.
The new series features a primarily Japanese cast, including co-producer Hiroyuki Sanada from Avengers: Endgame and Bullet Train, Anna Sawai and Hiroto Kanai.
Set in Japan in the year 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war, Sanada stars as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, who is fighting for his life with political enemies at his door.
When a European ship is wrecked in a nearby village, Toranaga finds an unlikely ally in John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), an Englishman “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,” to quote the network.
FX continues, “Toranaga’s and Blackthorne’s fates become inextricably tied to their translator (Sawai), a mysterious Christian noblewoman [who] must reconcile her newfound companionship with Blackthorne, her commitment to the faith that saved her and her duty to her late father.”
The trailer promises all the palace intrigue and sweeping swordplay that made the book and the previous miniseries such a smash.
The series premieres in February and will roll out new episodes weekly.
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