Maybe no TV show in the last year has seen as much effusive praise as Hulu and FX’sShogun. The historical drama series, based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell, has widely been called one of 2024’s best, on top of breaking the record as the most awarded season in Emmy history, with eighteen total wins. And against all odds, it actually lives up to the hype; the first season ofShogunis one of the medium’s most enthralling works in recent memory, spinning a web of political intrigue but delicately balancing it with action, scope, and heartbreak. It’s exhilarating from the first episode to the last.
Even in a post-Game of Thronesworld (though the two showscouldn’t be more different), the production values are to die for, showcasing a visual flair, scale, and period-specific detail that puts most modern blockbusters to shame. Yet maybe the most surprising thing is thatShogun, which tells a fictionalized tale set in Japan’s late Sengoku period, while taking loose inspiration from historical events, was actually mostly filmed outside of Japan.
Where Did ‘Shogun’ Film?
This wasn’t always the case. In fact, whenShogunwas first announced in 2018, filming was set to begin the following year entirely in Asia. However, production was quickly pushed back after a shakeup in the writers’ room and a decision to rewrite most of the scripts, and was delayed even further in the wake ofthe 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. When filming finally commenced in late 2021,costs from the repeated delays led to the creative team choosing to relocate production.
They did end upshooting a small amount in Japan, but the footage was largely limited to establishing shots, landscapes, and monuments that couldn’t be replicated elsewhere. Additionally, in 2019, the creative team was afraid of losing the book rights due to the constant production delays, so they traveled toLondon to shoot a small scene that showed protagonistYoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada)riding on a horse by a fire. This helped them maintain the rights to the source material even as they retooled their scripts.
However,the bulk of the filming forShoguntook place in Canada, mostly in Vancouver, Port Moody, and Ucluelet.In an interview with CTV News, show producer Erin Smith elaborated: “They searched the world to do this show. We wanted to open the show with the beautiful scenery of the Wya Point Beach in Ucluelet. It’s a very beautiful place. We have a lot of cast and crew from Japan that were quite fascinated and blown away by the resemblance of that spot to Japan.”
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How Did ‘Shogun’ Recreate Ancient Japan?
In particular,Ucluelet, a peninsula off thewest coast of Vancouver Island, has an uncanny resemblance to parts of Japan. Helping matters was its location on the coast and easy access to beaches and forests; as Smith mentioned,the Wya Point Beach was used specifically for the opening sequence of theShogunpilot. Otherwise, Ucluelet was mostly used to capture scenes set in Japanese landscapes. However, the crew often faced difficulties like traffic delays and ferry access, due to the restrictions of filming on an island.
Another regular filming location was Port Moody, a municipality of the West Vancouver Regional District.Most of the shooting took place here, as the creative team had easy access to breathtaking views of the mountains from the waterfront, allowing them to easily pass them off as landscapes in the Sengoku period. They also built exterior sets in the city, with heavy emphasis on making them look as accurate to the time period as possible.
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All the interior locations, specifically those set in Osaka Castle, were shot on soundstages in Vancouver. However, even after cameras finally started rolling, the cast and crew still faced numerous difficulties. Just a year after the COVID pandemic hit its peak, quarantine restrictions and security measures were still in place, and coupled with the difficulties in getting access to the islands they needed, this led to a limited number of cast members on set at a time. Smith explained, “Every single actor and background performer has to be in a special wig, of a hairstyle of the time. Just the amount of people that it takes to get that ready in the morning and undone at the end of the day.”
After filming officially wrapped, the crew reportedly planted a Japanese pine tree in one of the filming locations, as a thank you to the local community. Despite the difficulties in bringingShogunto television, thanks to delays brought about by script rewrites, the aftermath of a global pandemic, and challenges making Vancouver look like ancient Japan, it’s clear the hard work paid off in spades. Even almost a year since its debut and eventual Emmy domination,Shogunis stillone of the most staggeringly mounted showsin recent memory, clearly a labor of love from everyone involved and well worth the difficult journey to realize it.ShogunSeason 1 is streaming on Hulu.
