Ghost of Tsushima Movie Reportedly Looking to Cast Shogun’s Hiroyuki Sanada

The Ghost of Tsushima movie might be nearing its first casting.

PlayStation’s movie adaptation of the video game Ghost of Tsushima may have found its first cast member in Shogun star Hiroyuki Sanada. Back in 2021, PlayStation Productions first announced that it had partnered with John Wick series director Chad Stahelski to create a film iteration of Ghost of Tsushima. Since then, no other major announcements tied to the project have come about, which has left fans with more questions than answers. Fortunately, it sounds as though the movie’s development has progressed far enough to where it might now begin casting starting with Sanada. 

According to @DanielRPK, Hiroyuki Sanda is currently in talks to star in Ghost of Tsushima. For the time being, it’s not known which role Sanda would play in the movie, but many fans have already found him to have a number of similarities to the character Lord Shimura. In the Ghost of Tsushima game, Shimura is the uncle of the main protagonist, Jin Sakai, and ends up playing a pivotal part in the events of its story. 

One reason why Sanda’s potential casting in Ghost of Tsushima makes a lot of sense is because he has previously worked with director Chad Stahelski. Specifically, Sanada starred in 2023’s John Wick 4, which was his most recent role on the big screen. With Stahelski in charge of the Ghost of Tsushima movie, it makes sense that he would potentially want to work with Sanada once again given how well their previous collaboration went. 

In the near term, Sanada is set to reprise his role as Scorpion in Mortal Kombat 2, which is poised to hit theaters in 2025. This year, Sanada received widespread acclaim for playing Lord Yoshii Toranaga in FX’s Shogun. Following the success of Shogun, FX went on to greenlight two additional seasons of the historical drama, but whether or not Sanada will return in any of these episodes isn’t known. 

For now, PlayStation Productions has provided no release window for the Ghost of Tsushima movie. If Sanada does become attached to the film soon, though, there’s a good chance we’ll start to learn more about when filming might begin. A video game sequel to Ghost of Tsushima is also widely expected to be in development, although developer Sucker Punch Productions has yet to confirm as much.