This Super Bowl weekend has been one for the books. A show that has decided to release its trailer during the most awaited football game of the year is FX‘s Shogun, ComicBook.com reports. The show’s trailer caption, via Comicbook.com, states, “Big Game Commercial. Based on the legendary novel, witness the forging of an epic empire. FX’s Shōgun premieres 2.27 on Hulu.”
But what will the show actually be about? According to Comicbook.com, the show description states: “Based on James Clavell’s novel, FX’s Shōgun is set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. 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.”
Furthermore, this is what, according to ComicBook.com, the season will be focused on. “Its English pilot, ‘John Blackthorne’, played by Cosmo Jarvis (Persuasion, Calm with Horses, It Is In Us All), comes bearing secrets that could help Toranaga tip the scales of power and devastate the formidable influence of Blackthorne’s own enemies — the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants. Toranaga’s and Blackthorne’s fates become inextricably tied to their translator, ‘Toda Mariko’, played by Anna Sawai (Pachinko, Fast and Furious 9, Fast X), a mysterious Christian noblewoman and the last of a disgraced line. While serving her lord amidst this fraught political landscape, Mariko must reconcile her newfound companionship with Blackthorne, her commitment to the faith that saved her and her duty to her late father.”
The trailer was shown, as stated earlier, during the Super Bowl game, which follows the yearly and traditional route that many TV shows take: showing short part of the trailer to make sure as many people as possible watch it, and at the end, prompting viewers to watch the full trailer online. This is a marketing strategy that companies use in order to gain viewership for their new projects. According to Comicbook.com, Shogun‘s The show, according to ComicBook.com, will star Tadanobu Asano (A Life: Itoshiki Hito, Detective YUGAMI), Hiroyuki Sanada (John Wick: Chapter 4, Mortal Kombat, Bullet Train), Takehiro Hira (Lost Girls & Love Hotels, Killing for the Prosecution, Lesson of the Evil), Hiroto Kanai (Lenses on Her Heart, She Is Alone, Tuna Girl), Tokuma Nishioka (Call Boy, Zero Woman, To Every You I’ve Loved Before), Moeka Hoshi (Girls’ Encounter, Over the Town, Just Only Love), Fumi Nikaido (Eye Love You, Vivant, No Longer Human), Shinnosuke Abe (Day and Night, Badboys, Mei-chan’s Butler), Jarvis, Sawai and Yuki Kura (Dog and Scum, A Girl on the Shore, The Forbidden Play). Justin Marks (Counterpart, Rewind, The Jungle Book) and Rachel Kondo (Pachinko, Echo, Daisy Jones & The Six) are the showrunners and executive producers. Edward L. McDonnell (A Walk to Remember, Catwoman, Robin Hood), Kondo, Michael De Luca (Reminiscence, The Kitchen, Under the Silver Lake), Michaela Clavell (Octopussy, The Children’s Story), and Sanada also are producers of the show. It will be a 10-episode series in total.
Shogun will be available to stream on Feb. 27 on FX. The trailer can be seen here.