‘Shōgun’ Trailer Sees Hiroyuki Sanada Headline FX’s Feudal Japan Epic!! Check It Out!!

FX unveiled today the trailer for Shōgun, an ambitious-looking limited series based on a best-selling novel by author James Clavell. The series has been in the works for quite a while, but the trailer makes it clear that this is a blockbuster-level production and fully explains why it took so long for us to hear anything about it. We’ll also have to wait a little longer: The series is slated to premiere in February 2024, and FX is yet to reveal a specific release window.

Set in 1600s feudal Japan, Shōgun stars Hiroyuki Sanada (John Wick: Chaper 4) as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, who witnesses a Civil War take shape all the while the Japanese start clashing with Europeans – and he’s presented with an unlikely alliance that may tip the scales in his favor. The connecting thread between Japanese and European revolutionaries will be Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a woman caught between her religious beliefs and her heritage from a disgraced family.

The trailer suggests that Shōgun has the makings of must-watch TV. While it makes it absolutely clear that the episodes draw inspiration from Japanese cinema masterpieces like Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai and Ran, the series will also throw in some spectacle like the ship in a revolting sea scene suggests. For Japanese cinema lovers, the show will make for a great companion to newly released Netflix anime series Blue Eye Samurai.

‘Shōgun’ Gathers A Stellar Japanese Cast

Shōgun is co-created and showrun by Justin Marks, who co-wrote mega popular sequel Top Gun: Maverick, penned The Jungle Book live-action remake and created the Counterpart TV series for Starz. Aside from Sanada and Sawai, the cast also features Tadanobu Asano (Thor: Ragnarok), Hiroto Kanai (Tuna Girl), Takehiro Hira (Gran Turismo), Moeka Hoshi (Dependence), Tokuma Nishioka (Ultraman Mebius), Shinnosuke Abe (13 Assassins), Yuki Kura (A Girl on the Shore), Fumi Nikaido (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?) and Cosmo Jarvis (Peaky Blinders).

The series is also a landmark during the peak television era: It’s not that common for the world to see other cultures depicted in long-form productions with this kind of production values – especially considering that Shōgun will likely have a pretty large subtitled section. This means that FX is taking a chance with its audience, and if it pays off there’s plenty more of where it came from: The source material is just one of a seven-volume, tour-de-force series of stories that chronicle Asian History.

FX premieres Shōgun in February 2024. A specific release date is yet to be unveiled.

You can watch the trailer for Shōgun below: