The announcement of the 76the Emmy Awards nominations revealed FX's Shōgun as the top nominee for the year with 25 nods. FX chief John Landgraf spoke with Variety about their haul — 93 in total — and what's in store for Shōgun's second and third seasons.
FX's total Emmy nominations places it second after Netflix with 107 and ahead of HBO with 91.
Shōgun gives FX 25 out of its 93 Emmy nominations
“Our prior record total was 56,” Landgraf said, referring to the network's haul in 2016 which included The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
“And I think we hoped and had some optimism that we might break that. I wasn't looking for something in the 90s. I thought, maybe, it was conceivable we might break 80. But even that seemed a little too optimistic. So this one really caught us by surprise and in the best possible way,” he added.
Shōgun was originally meant to compete under the limited series category. After all, the show is based on James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name and on the 1980 mini-series. However, co-creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks announced that it will have seasons two and three, which effectively moved the show under the drama series category.
As for Shōgun's second season, Landgraf said that he had just spoken to the co-creators after the nominations were announced and he congratulated them.
“They had just stepped out of the writers room, and are happily at work,” he stated.
“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,” the network chief continued.
With this year's tally raising the bar for the network's future expectations, Landgraf doesn't want to be bullish for the 2025 Emmys and beyond.
Focus on the process
“I've always been process-oriented. My point of view has always been do your best, work with the best people you can trust, support them the best way you can, stay focused on the actual process, stay focused on the work. The results will take care of themselves. Sometimes the results blow through your wildest expectations,” he explained.
“We just really feel privileged to be a part of this industry and a part of the opportunity to help storytellers tell their stories. We try to do that as well as we possibly can, and let the chips fall where the chips fall,” Landgraf added.
As for beating HBO by two nominations, the network chief is focusing more on competing with the best.
“HBO is excellent. They've always been excellent. They will be excellent. We're trying to be excellent. We're trying to compete with the best. I'm really just glad to be in the company of the best. It's not really about the network or the streaming platform. It's really about the talent. It's about the creative. That's what the Emmys are here to recognize,” he stated.
Shōgun's impressive nomination count is made even more impressive since it's only the second non-English language series to have been nominated in the drama category. All of the Japanese castmembers are first-time nominees as individuals. Most of them are also the first Japanese nominees in their categories in Emmy history.
Hiroyuki Sanada, who also serves as an executive producer, received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Anna Sawai was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Shōgun has two nominations under the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category: one for Tadanobu Asano and another for Takehiro Hira.
Nestor Carbonell was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
The series also received two nods for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, with co-creators Kondo and Marks sharing one nomination and Kondo sharing another with Caillin Puente.
Shōgun is also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.
Shōgun is streaming on Hulu and Disney+ in other territories.
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