'Shogun' Limited Series Cast Adds Hiroyuki Sanada And Cosmo Jarvis

The FX limited series based on James Clavell's Shogun has added Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis to its cast. Sanada just appeared in both Mortal Kombat and Army of the Dead, while Jarvis's credits include Annihilation and Calm With Horses. The story is "set in feudal Japan and charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai."

The Wrap has the news that Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis have joined the Shogun cast for FX. Jarvis will play John Blackthorne, "a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him, while Sanada is "Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals." The female samurai role, Lady Mariko, has not been cast yet, but the character is described as "a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance."

Here's the synopsis for the novel the show is based on:

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen—Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is late sixteenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne's loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed.

Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Sh?gun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion.

Shogun was previously adapted into a miniseries in 1980, with a cast that included the legendary Toshiro Mifune. That miniseries ran for 5 episodes, while this new FX incarnation will have 10 episodes. The new series is being written by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo. Marks is executive producing alongside Clavell's daughter, Michaela Clavell, and Kondo is co-executive producing. Marks and Kondo were brought in to "revamp the project a few months after it was first ordered by FX in Summer 2018," per The Wrap story. No word just yet when we might see the series, so stay tuned.