Star of Shōgun on Disney+ Cosmo Jarvis talks James Clavell’s novel, studying feudal Japan and working with Hiroyuki Sanada

English actor Cosmo Jarvis describes his lack of knowledge about Japan before he starred in a new Disney+ adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shōgun

He recalls 11 gruelling months of filming in Canada and speaks of his admiration for his Japanese co-star Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays Lord Toranaga

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English actor Cosmo Jarvis (above), who plays 16th century sailor Richard Blackthorne in a new Disney+ adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shōgun. Photo: Disney+

Published: 5:15pm, 18 Feb 2024

A bestseller in its day, James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shōgun explored 16th century feudal Japan through the eyes of John Blackthorne, an English sailor who ends up shipwrecked there.

Clavell’s book was adapted into a beloved 1980 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain as Blackthorne and the legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune as the powerful feudal lord he encounters, Yoshi Toranaga.

Now comes the inevitable remake, courtesy of Hulu, Disney+ and FX, starring 34-year-old Cosmo Jarvis, the rising British actor who first made an impact in Lady Macbeth opposite Florence Pugh.

“I wasn’t aware of anything to do with Shōgun until the audition process began,” Jarvis says, when we speak over Zoom. Likewise, his knowledge of this era of Japanese history was minimal.

I don’t think fans of the book will be disappointed

Cosmo Jarvis

“I only knew the very rudimentary surface-level aesthetic tropes that some people in the West are familiar with. Samurais and bonsai trees.”