Shogun: Where was the best series of the year filmed? (Hint, not in Japan)

Where was the Shogun TV series filmed? The most obvious answer to this question would be that the show was filmed in Japan, the country where the story of the new adaptation of James Clavell’s novel takes place. But the truth is that the production went to another country, or rather another continent!

The filming of the series actually took place in Canada, more specifically in the Vancouver region on the Pacific coast. The choice was motivated by economic reasons, despite the initial desire to film in Japan, production began at a time when strict health protocol restricted international travel.

The large budget available for the program, however, made it possible for the studio to reconstruct interior sets, such as the main piece, Lord Yoshi Toranaga’s Osaka Castle. A real challenge for production designer Helen Jarvis, who had never been to Japan during filming.

Canada, the perfect place to film a samurai story

But the real challenge was filming on location. Fortunately, the surrounding nature of Vancouver and the province of British Columbia offers many landscapes similar to Japan. The lead actor of Shogun Hiroyuki Sanada also admitted that the location was Canada “ideal” Shooting a samurai story:

“This town has a big and beautiful studio and everything is just a 30-minute drive away: forests, rivers, beaches, nature parks and mountains.” He described Yahoo CanadaHe emphasized that the cooperation between the Japanese and local teams went well.

While filming took place over eight months from late 2021 to summer 2022, the scene was filmed two years earlier in 2019 in London. This scene featuring Hiroyuki Sanada riding a horse was filmed only to allow the production to retain the rights to adapt the novel due to numerous delays.

Episodes of the Shogun series can be seen every Tuesday exclusively on Disney+.

Discover the list of series currently available on the platform!