But on this project, I started to feel the limit of what I can say and do behind the scenes as an actor. You know, on all of the movies and TV shows I worked on before, I never wanted or asked for the title of producer.

I felt myself relating to this because it kind of overlapped with my position on this production. Toranaga didn’t specifically seek that position but finally, he needs the title of Shōgun to make his dream of peace come true. If you ask me, I think that statement is true in this version of the story. As soon as around episode four, he says he’s not interested in becoming Shōgun - but he says many things for strategic reasons and his real intention is sometimes mysterious. Well, we were very careful never to say clearly if he always wanted it or not. In that wonderful final scene between you and Tadanobu Asano as Yabushige, the question arises of whether it was Toranaga’s goal all along to achieve total power and become Shōgun, or if he was forced by circumstance to pursue that role. Shōgun shows how hard peace can be to achieve. That’s a very good message for the world - especially now when human beings around the world are fighting each other again. The reason I took the role this time is because I believe we need this kind of hero right now.

I even played Ieyasu once before (in the 1989 Japanese historical drama Oda Nobunaga). Since I was a kid, I’ve been reading novels about him, watching movies and TV series about him. That’s why the model of Toranaga, Ieyasu, is such a hero in Japan. Creating this period of peace will be the greatest thing he’s ever done. And it’s allowed him to change the course of history. That’s what he’s been struggling for and that’s what his never-give-up mindset has achieved.Įven after he went to the very bottom of his life - around episodes seven and eight - he never gave up. And that was the most important thing for me about this story: Toranaga ended and created a peaceful era in Japan that lasted for about 260 years, until the country opened to the world. If people know the history, they already know what Toranaga creates. There are some sad notes, but the ending reveals Toranaga’s dream - what he’s been wanting this whole time and what he will create for the future of Japan. But it has cost him his eldest son, his oldest friend and his loyal translator and confidant, Lady Mariko. It appears all but certain that he has out-foxed everyone and won the grand game. But below, he shares how he hopes Shōgun will be remembered if we’ve indeed seen the last of Lord Toranaga on screen.Īs the curtain comes down on Shōgun, we’re given a glimpse of Lord Toranaga’s vision of the future. Like the hit show’s co-creators, Sanada has nothing new or definitive to share about whether the show might find a way to extend beyond FX’s original plans for a single-season run (“We’ve been talking about how the story can continue since we started shooting, but who knows”). “That we were able to make this happen is like a miracle to me.” “Western and Japanese cast and crew working together across cultures to achieve the same goal - to tell this great old story in an authentic way,” Sanada says. by taking the helm of a period samurai story that is executed with both Hollywood production firepower and an uncommonly high degree of cultural accuracy and respect. For Shōgun, Sanada fulfilled a long-held dream of bridging his two careers in Japan and the U.S. He began performing nearly 60 years ago as a child in Japan, apprenticing under the legendary actor Sonny Chiba on the way to becoming a major local star, before breaking into Hollywood with roles in projects like The Last Samurai, Lost, The Wolverine, Avengers: Endgame, Bullet Train, John Wick: Chapter 4 and many others.īut now, he is the star of what many analysts believe to be Disney‘s most-watched streaming series to date, a show that also happens to be the first project to bear his personal imprint as a producer. Sanada’s moment of career triumph is not dissimilar in its decade-spanning tirelessness (at least, in entertainment industry terms). Jessica Casano-Antonellis to Lead Comms at Disney-Fox-Warner Sports Streaming Platform

Deeper synonym