The first season of Shogun dropped its curtain on Tuesday, with the tenth episode also shown in Greece by Disney Plus. And if you’ve already seen it and it seemed like a definitive finale, it wasn’t your idea. It was a definite finale. Spoilers follow.
From the beginning the planning said that we have a limited series based on the book of the same name by James Clavell and the existing material was completely covered. The finale was not as explosive as most might have expected, but instead was a calm and internal capture of the plan Toranaga had from the beginning.
The big battle only comes in a… flash-forward that basically puts all the pieces in place and Toranaga revealing that the ‘Purple Sky’ plan isn’t following, but has already come to fruition. It was essentially Mariko’s sacrifice that we saw in the ninth episode.
The series delighted audiences and critics and was a global success for FX and Disney Plus, but there are no plans to continue it.
According to the showrunners, Shōgun was always intended to be a standalone miniseries, with no planned sequels. Clavell’s novel was the third part of his Asian Saga, although none of the other books in the series directly follow the events in Shōgun.
The next, chronologically, Tai-Pan, takes us forward about 200 years. So in theory one of the books could be picked up for a new TV adaptation, but it wouldn’t involve any of the characters we saw.
The story could be an inspiration for the creators, however, since the book is based on true events, with Toranaga’s character based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, who fought the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and established a shogunate that lasted more than 250 years.
And Blackthorne’s character, too, was based on a real-life English sailor (William Adams) who washed up on Kyushu and eventually became a key military adviser to the Tokugawa.
However, as we said, there are currently no plans for a return, and maybe that’s for the best, since we have a beautiful story with a beginning, middle and end.
All episodes of Shogun are available now on Disney Plus.
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