An armed Ishido looking angry while Toranaga is looking at the lake in Shogun Shōgun star Takehiro Hira addresses his return as the villainous Ishido. Hira had a steadily increasing presence in the first installment of the acclaimed FX series, positioned as the opposition to Hiroyuki Sanada’s Toranaga. Although the adaptation of James Clavell’s novel seems to put the two characters on a collision course, Shōgun season 1 ended with the implication that Toranaga and Ishido never meet on the battlefield.

In an interview with The Playlist, which also discusses Hira’s role in Captain America: Brave New World, the actor touched on Ishido’s fate if more seasons of Shōgun come to fruition. Given that Ishido, like other characters on the show, is based on a real-life figure, Hira was asked whether he would reprise his role. He casts doubt on the possibility, noting that it depends on the direction the writers decide to take. Read his response below:

Well, if the drama goes on with the time sequence as they did in season one, my character Ishido Kazunari would be executed after the Battle of Sekigahara.

He’s not dead yet. So, hopefully, I will survive the series, but the history tells me otherwise. So, I can’t do much about that.

Takehiro Hira’s Response Touches On Potential Hurdles Of More Shōgun

The Show Will Have To Continue After Its Distinctive Conclusion.

Toranaga wears a stern expression while standing next to a lake in a scene from Shogun season 1 Hiroyuki Sanada wielding a sword as Toranaga in Shogun episode 10 Tadanobu Asano as Yabushige looking at Toranaga in Shogun Toranaga holds up a document in a scene from Shogun episode 10 Hiroyuki Sanada as Toranaga stood by a tree in Shogun Toranaga wears a stern expression while standing next to a lake in a scene from Shogun season 1 Hiroyuki Sanada wielding a sword as Toranaga in Shogun episode 10 Tadanobu Asano as Yabushige looking at Toranaga in Shogun Toranaga holds up a document in a scene from Shogun episode 10 Hiroyuki Sanada as Toranaga stood by a tree in Shogun

Shōgun season 2 does have a potential avenue due to how one of its most crucial scenes unfolds. Toranaga tells Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) how his battle with Ishido will unfold and how Ishido is essentially a dead man walking after losing the support of Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido). But the scene could be read as a flash-forward or, more simply, Toranaga’s idealized version of what could happen. If it’s the latter option, that gives the series more room to explore the story between Toranaga and his rival.

Shōgun stands out because it sidesteps the expected climatic battle and finds something equally stirring in its character-based conclusions.

The bigger question remains whether Shōgun should return for more seasons. It was explicitly set up as a limited series, which led FX to adjust after it shifted plans to produce more seasons following its critical and viewership success. As it stands, creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks and their team of writers are working on getting a second and third season of the popular historical saga off the ground.

Still, there are reasons to be concerned about those efforts. There are a lot of examples, perhaps most notably HBO’s Big Little Lies, of shows that returned after initial success but failed to capture the momentum of the initial story. Though the conflict between Ishido and Toranga is part of that initial story, Shōgun stands out because it sidesteps the expected climatic battle and finds something equally stirring in its character-based conclusions. Revisiting the story could dent that memorable and widely-lauded approach.