Practically a full 12 months has handed for the reason that premiere of Shōgun on FX and streaming for viewers with a Hulu subscription, however the 2025 TV schedule continues to be a supply of triumph for the historic drama. Not lengthy after profitable in some key classes on the Golden Globes and months after making historical past on the Emmys, the drama and its solid cleaned up on the long-delayed Critics Alternative Awards. In excellent timing, the CCAs happened simply days after I spoke with star Hiroyuki Sanada concerning the present, and he positioned particular significance on “authenticity.”
Shōgun led the Critics Alternative Awards nominations with a complete of six, and in the end gained nearly each class that it presumably might with a complete of 4. Together with Finest Drama Sequence, Hiroyuki Sanada gained Finest Actor in a Drama Sequence, Tadanobu Asano gained for Finest Supporting Actor, and Moeka Hoshi gained for Finest Supporting Actress. Anna Sawai was within the working for Finest Actress however misplaced to Kathy Bates for Matlock, whereas Takehiro Hira could not win Finest Supporting Actor just because his co-star already did win it.
All in all, it was an excellent evening for Shōgun, shortly after I spoke with Hiroyuki Sanada on the purple carpet of SCAD TVfest in Atlanta, the place he was being introduced with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The actor had already earned recognition for the sheer variety of movies and TV reveals he’d labored on through the years, in my humble opinion, however Shōgun is arguably the top. Once I spoke with Sanada – who was additionally an government producer on the collection – about what it means to him that he acquired this award instantly within the wake of Shōgun, and he stated:
That is massive. Since I used to be a baby actor, I’ve finished a whole lot of totally different sort of roles or challenge or style. Each time once I get the brand new function, I combine up each single expertise into the subsequent one, attempt to make finest one ever. [laughs] And Shōgun, after 20 years in Hollywood, I realized loads. World market, Western viewers, and in addition I do know the Japanese viewers. So combine, create the very best screenplay to make Shōgun, we wanted the viewers who will get pleasure from each Western and Japanese. That stability was an important and tough.
Notably, Shōgun used subtitles for all the dialogue in Japanese slightly than directing the actors to talk English, as could be in any other case anticipated in Western media. The strategy clearly labored, because the present was immensely fashionable when it launched episodes within the 2024 TV schedule, acquired an order for Season 2, and continues to wash up on the awards circuit. At SCAD TVfest, Sanada went on:
On set, simply we attempt to make genuine. Not westernized, not modernized, simply go straight to authenticity. That was our plan, so I put all my expertise in my life into Shōgun, after which Shōgun introduced me right here. So it is loads for me. It is a lot for me.
The actor/producer went on to joke that he is now “sufficiently old” for a Lifetime Achievement Award, but it surely’s clear that his profession positively is not over. He is connected to Season 2 of Shōgun, though particulars stay scarce concerning the subsequent batch of episodes and if/how they’re going to proceed the story from the primary spherical. In spite of everything, by the tip of Season 1, a number of of the important thing characters had been useless!
In case you missed Shōgun the primary time once more – or, like me, are simply within the temper to rewatch it after Hiroyuki Sanada’s feedback about authenticity – you could find the complete first season streaming on Hulu now. The present has gained award after award after award for good purpose, and I’ve to consider that it holds up on a couple of watch.