Key Points

Cosmo Jarvis has closed a deal to reprise his role as English pilot John Blackthorne, joining Hiroyuki Sanada, who will return as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, as per Deadline.

The second season will be "a wholly original new chapter to the first season," taking place 10 years after the events of the first season.

The new chapter will continue the historically inspired saga of Lord Toranaga and John Blackthorne, whose fates are inextricably entwined.

According to Deadline, production on season 2 is slated to begin in January in Vancouver, where the first instalment was shot.

Hiroyuki Sanada has been upped to executive producer for season 2, and Cosmo Jarvis will join the series' producing ranks as co-executive producer.

Series creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks have spoken about the challenges of conceiving a second season without a blueprint, as none of the other novels in James Clavell's Asian Saga have the same characters as 'Shogun.'

However, they have revealed that they leaned on the 'Shogun' novel, incorporating elements and characters that were not used in season 1.

FX chairman John Landgraf revealed that there are no plans to film a second and third season back-to-back, and that a third 'Shogun' instalment is not a lock.

"I don't know that we're certain there will be three seasons, but in really looking at the characters in the history that's being depicted here, albeit in a fictionalised manner, it still feels to us like three is the right number of seasons to really do it justice," he said.

- ANI