The Creators of WESTWORLD Reveal Details on The "Brutal and Beautiful" Shogun World

One of the aspects of Westworld Season 2 that a lot of fans are excited about is the introduction of Shogun World. It's just a part of history that some many of us are fascinated with, and if I ever had the opportunity to actually embark on an adventure at Delos Destinations, it would be Shogun World! All we've really known about Shogun World up to this point comes from a description provided at the Delos Destinations viral website: 

For those for whom Westworld is not enough, the true connoisseur of gore can indulge their fantasies with the slash of a katana. Modeled after Japan’s Edo period, Shogun World offers a chance for guests to embrace their inner warrior, in a landscape of highest beauty and darkest horror. Let your true self take shape in the land where self-discovery is an art form.

Now thanks to writer-producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy we have more details on what to expect from Shogun World, and what they say is sure to get you excited! When talking to EW about Shogun World and why they decided to highlight that world out of the others, Nolan says:

"Part of the reason we’re going to Shogun World instead of to Roman World or Medieval World is, yes, you saw those in the original film. But also if you’re doing a theme park, you wouldn’t limit it to the Western European or North American experience. You’d try to reach a global audience. So the idea is you have a texture here that’s totally different.

"And selfishly, it comes down to being obsessed with Japanese cinema as a kid and earnestly wanting to make an homage to Akira Kurosawa and the other films I grew up watching. My older brothers and I watched Sergio Leone Westerns and Kurosawa’s classic samurai films and were fascinated to discover they had the same plot. You had this wonderful call and response between these two genres — with the gunslinger and the ronin. They have identical tropes but are set within different cultures. Frankly, this was just a great excuse to go and make a samurai movie with all the trimmings."

He goes on to confirm that Shogun World is based on the do period, which is from the years 1603 and 1867. The wanted to have a world that they had a lot to pick and choose from and this gives them about 300 to play with. When asked about Shogun World being a level up and more violent than Westworld Nolan said:

"In addition to Kurosawa films, which are plenty bloody, I grew up watching the Sonny Chiba films — those are the ones Tarantino is riffing on in his films with the superfluidity of gore and mayhem; this sense of an alternately brutal and beautiful world that raises the volume on what the guests might be looking for. It wasn’t just about gore, it’s also about being immersive. We wanted to feel like our story dropped into a totally different world. Basically, we have a whole episode in Japanese."

It's then revealed that there's a lot of stuff woven into Shogun World from classic Asian cinema such as The Seven Samurai, and Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy:

"There’s quite a lot from those movies woven through Shogun World. Hiroyuki’s character is based in honor of [Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy character Musashi], and some of our set decoration choices and costumes were in homage to Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, which is the most f—ing rad duel in any movie ever. But as with the Western, there are pieces from all over the place."

Nolan goes on to say that most of the series will be spent in Westworld, which was expected, but we will also get a glimpse at some of the other world as well. He also reveals that there will be two episodes of Westworld Season 2 that take place in Shogun World, so that makes me happy!

"We want to try and gently temper expectations. Most of our season is spent in Westworld — the eponymous Westworld. But we do get a chance to glimpse some of the other worlds. And we have a couple of episodes that are spent in Shogun World with one of our storylines, while our other storylines continue elsewhere. So I say we’re trying to temper expectations, except to say that I think the stuff we did for Shogun World is spectacular."

I can't wait to see more of this Shogun World that they created for this upcoming season! Westworld returns on April 22nd.