Shōgun Star Hints His Character May Not Survive Season 2
Shōgun is marching toward Season 2 with blood in the water—Takehiro Hira warns his power player Ishido Kazunari may not survive the next chapter.
FX is gearing up for Shōgun Season 2, and one of its key players already thinks he knows how his story ends. Takehiro Hira, who plays Ishido Kazunari, is looking at the history the show pulls from and, well, he is not optimistic.
Hira is already bracing for impact
Hira told Variety he has only seen one script so far, but he is reading between the lines — and the history books. The older characters in Shōgun loosely mirror real figures, and if you follow that thread, Ishido does not exactly ride off into the sunset after the big conflict. Hira even teased what kind of exit he expects and joked about how he might pop back up.
"My days are numbered. I will probably have an honorable death. But I could come back as a..."
That last part is him being cheeky, but the gist is clear: if you know the historical inspirations, you can probably guess who is not long for this world when Season 2 picks up.
What Season 2 looks like so far
- Production starts in January.
- The story jumps ahead 10 years, revisiting a transformed world and the fallout from Season 1 a decade later.
- Returning cast: Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis.
- New faces: Asami Mizukawa, Jun Kunimura, Masataka Kubota, and more.
- Behind the camera: Season 1 directors Hiromi Kamata and Takeshi Fukunaga are back, with Anthony Byrne and Kate Herron joining the rotation.
- Co-creator Justin Marks is promising big: he describes Season 2 as a sweeping, unexpected love story that also doubles as a tragic war epic, and says the scale, the tragedy, and the humanity are on another level.
- No release date yet.
Bottom line: Season 2 is leaping forward a decade, loading up on talent in front of and behind the camera, and aiming bigger. As for Ishido? If Hira is right, enjoy him while you can.