Even without John Blackthorne’s literary-accurate massive dong, Shōgun is a ratings hit. FX pulled out all the stops, and as a result, 9 million views in the first six days of each episode’s release says a lot in the streaming age when there’s also a buffet of every other type of show imaginable. Truly great historical epics, however, are few and far between, and between this and The Bear, the network’s Hulu partnership is bringing the views in spades.
Will there, however, be a second season of Shōgun to further James Clavell’s Asian Saga series of books? Co-creators and executive producers Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo sat down with The Hollywood Reporter, and although the husband-wife duo are thrilled with the show’s reception, they both sound wistfully prepared to bid it goodbye if there is no renewal by FX. They both would enjoy doing more, but in particular, Marks sounds content with the season finale as “a period” to this adaptation:
“We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence. We love how the book ends; it was one of the reasons why we both knew we wanted to do it — and we ended in exactly that place. And I’ve been party to this in the past with shows like this, where you build a whole factory, and it only pumps out 10 cars and closes up shop. It’s a bummer.”
Kondo further declared, “It feels a lot like parenting, where you get really good at, like, washing bottles, or all the other things that babies require, and then suddenly they don’t need any of that anymore. And you’re like, ‘Aw, I got so good at that.’” So, is that a negative on a second season? Marks suggests that postproduction phases ran so long on this series, “that’s just our bodies talking. Like, do you want to have another kid right now?” In other words, fingers are crossed, but Blackthorne’s “problematically huge penis” isn’t trying to impregnate anyone else yet.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)