Shogun star Cosmo Jarvis, who played British sailor John Blackthorne, has his intense breakthrough movie available to enjoy now on Netflix in the UK (in the US it's available through Starz) — and we highly recommend giving it a watch.
Take a look at William Oldroyd's Lady Macbeth and you'll see where the intensity that characterizes Jarvis's performance in Shogun comes from. Starring alongside a then lesser-known Florence Pugh, he's the groom on an isolated Northumbrian estate who attracts her attention and becomes both lover and accomplice in her efforts to break free from her arranged marriage. Another costume drama — the film is set during the Victorian era — it illustrates just how well he brings simmering passion to a character in a society constrained by iron-clad rules.
Shogun has been one of the major streaming hits of 2024. The Disney Plus series ended with so many unanswered questions that fans were clamoring for more. They got their wish a couple of months ago, when reports emerged that Lord Toranaga himself, actor/producer Hiroyuki Sanada, had signed on the dotted line for not one, but two, more seasons of the Japanese epic.
Not that there’s an official green light yet, or a date for filming Shogun season 2, but for now it's enough to know there's more on the way. Based on James Clavell's 1975 novel, its spectacular cinematography, intricate plot and magnetic characters — the majority of the dialogue was in Japanese, proving that subtitles are no barrier! – attracted over nine million viewers around the world to the first episode in just six days. And critics were equally captivated.
At the heart of the story, which revolves around Toranaga's machinations to unite Japan and become the shogun of the title, is Cosmo's character who finds himself shipwrecked on the Japanese coast and ultimately becomes a member of the lord’s inner circle. It's put the star in the global spotlight for the first time, after roles including an Irish hardman in Calm With Horses, alongside Barry Keoghan, and Tommy Shelby's World War One comrade, Barney Thompson, in Peaky Blinders.
Before Shogun returns, Jarvis is scheduled to be back on the big screen next spring, this time keeping company with Robert de Niro in veteran director Barry Levinson’s gangster drama, Alto Knights. But if you can't wait to see Jarvis on screen again, then please watch Lady Macbeth, which is available now on Netflix in the UK and Starz in the US.
