"Shōgun" continues to captivate critics and audiences worldwide nearly a year after the FX series began streaming on Hulu.
Justin Marks and his wife, Rachel Kondo, adapted James Clavell's novel to create the series.
The characters are loosely based on historical figures set in the year 1600 in Japan. The original series, told through the perspective of an English navigator, came out in 1980, the year Marks was born.
"I think what it did in 1980 was extraordinary for its time. And we wanted to make a show that could have that same amount of impact today, which meant that we couldn't do the same thing all over again," Marks said.
In the new "Shōgun," some of the main characters are also Japanese, and it's mostly told in Japanese with English subtitles.
Kondo drew on her own roots to write across cultures and time.
"It was quite a journey because I initially thought being Japanese was the thing that would make me the perfect person to tell the story. When in fact I learned very quickly that I am Japanese American born in Hawaiʻi, so this is a completely different thing than the Japanese national and a native speaker of the Japanese language," she said.
"So, initially, I was very, very worried that I wouldn't know what to say. But I would time and time again come back to individuals like my Japanese grandmother who remains embedded in my memory and my heart."
Over the five years it took to make "Shōgun," the show's creators became parents of two girls.
Then, after living in Los Angeles for 20 years, they moved to Maui two years ago, where Kondo was born and raised.
Now that "Shōgun" has been greenlit for a second and third season, the creators' aspirations remain simple — but powerful.
"I think that the impact of 'Shōgun,' if there is a lasting impact, I would hope that it centers around our efforts to simply tell a good story because there is a lot that can be said about representation. There is a lot that can be said about what will or will not move the dial for Hollywood. But I have to say, when the goal is to tell a good story a lot of things do fall into place," Kondo said.
Marks added, "As a white male living today, I really can't speak for how we handle inclusivity, how we handle representation. What I can speak to is wanting to tell stories we've never seen before."
"And very often, being inclusive, telling stories about people who don't necessarily look like me is a way to see things that I would never otherwise understand... And the nice thing is, is that by being more inclusive, we can tell better stories. And that's what audiences really want to see."
You can watch the SAG Awards this Sunday on Netflix at 3 p.m. Hawaiʻi time.
