FX just released the official trailer for its limited series Shogun starring Hiroyuki Sanada, Variety reported.

The show is based on James Clavell's 1975 novel set in 1600 Japan. The 10-episode series follows the story of Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Sanada) as seen through the eyes of English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis).

The show's trailer on FX's YouTube channel noted that “Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.”

Joining Sanada and Jarvis are Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroto Kanai, Takehiro Hira, Moeka Hoshi, Tokuma Nishioka, Shinnosuke Abe, Yuki Kura and Fumi Nikaido.

Sanada was most recently in John Wick: Chapter 4. He played Shimazu Koji, the manager of the Osaka Continental and and old friend of Wick's. Jarvis was in the Netflix Jane Austen adaptation, Persuasion, in 2022.

Shogun on screen and in history

Sanada's character, Toranaga, is based on the real-life Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun and founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Tokugawa Shogunate ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868.

Blackthorne, Jarvis' character, is based on the real-life William Adams, the first Englishman to reach Japan. Blackthorne was given the name Anjin, meaning pilot or navigator.

The novel had previously been adapted into a television miniseries in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain (Blackthorne) and Akira Kurosawa's frequent collaborator, Toshiro Mifune (Toranaga).

Shogun is the account of Toranaga's rise to power. Blackthorne washes up on the Japanese coast and is taken to Toranaga. The warlord interrogates Blackthorne through interpreters, one of whom is Toranaga's retainer Lady Mariko Toda (Anna Sawai), a Catholic.

Toranaga learns from the Protestant Blackthorne about the Treaty of Tordesillas, which granted Portugal the right to claim Japan to spread Catholicism in Asia.

If the FX show follows the book faithfully, this is the backdrop of Toranaga's war against the rest of the Council of Regents. This, in history, is the Battle of Sekigahara. It is the largest battle in Japanese feudal history and arguably the most important.

The show will premiere in February 2024 on Hulu in the U.S and on Star+ in Latin America. It will be available on Disney+ everywhere else. The FX linear channel will also telecast one episode a week.