Right now, FX on Hulu's Shōgun is the show of the moment. Not only did the series earn overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and pick up millions upon millions of streams, but Shōgun won 18 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series. To add to its good fortune, the series just swept the Golden Globes, too, taking home all four awards it was up for.
Even though Shōgun was originally intended to exist as a limited series, its pop cultural explosion naturally led to FX and Hulu rethinking the strategy. Now, a second and third season are in active development, and following the show's domination at the 2025 Golden Globes, fans received a major update on the status of the highly anticipated season 2.
But it's not all good news. Depending on how you view the update — glass half full vs. glass half empty — you might be excited or you might be disappointed. According to Deadline, series showrunner Justin Marks chatted in the press room of the Golden Globes post-win and shared some information on the progress on the season 2 writers room.
Shogun season 2 writer's room "six weeks" from concluding
Marks stated that the writer's room for Shōgun season 2 will finish up in "about six weeks," which means there's about a month and half left until the writers complete the scripts. The writers got back to work crafting the stories for season 2 in summer 2024 and by the time they're done writing, over six months will have passed. That's a long time, but it's worth it!
What everyone wants to know, of course, is when filming will start on season 2, but Marks remained mum on that front. No one from the cast or crew managed to spill the beans about season 2 during all of the Golden Globes festivities! As the hottest show around, everyone wants to know what's next, but the cast and crew know not to give too much away.
Back in July 2024, Variety caught up with FX chairman John Landgraf in the wake of Emmy nominations. The publication asked explicitly about when production will begin on the followup season, and the boss gave a vague answer about wanting to start "early next year." However, there's another downside to his answer, too.
Here's what Landgraf told Variety about Shōgun season 2's production schedule
"We’re hoping to be in production relatively early next year. But it’s a long production period. I think between principal and second unit days of photography, that show shot between 180 and 190 days or more, could have been close to 200."
Even if Shōgun season 2 were to begin filming right after the writer's room closes in six weeks, there's still an extensive amount of time for filming. Landgraf revealed that the series filmed season 1 for possibly 200 days, which is obviously close to one year. By that metric, season 2 would and likely will spend a fair amount of 2025 in production. So, it's still far, far away even with the writer's room update.
There's a chance that the second season could be ready to start rolling out by the end of 2025, but there's also a chance that fans could be waiting for new episodes to kick off in 2026. Waiting is just the nature of streaming television these days. As more details begin to come out when season 2 begins production, we'll be sure to share all of the latest release information.
Watch Shōgun season 1 now on FX on Hulu.