Wait, Is Rob McElhenney Really In Shogun?!

A photo from FX’s Shogun featuring a character who resembles Rob McElhenney has made the rounds on the internet, raising the question of whether it’s actually him. The Shogun cast has been praised throughout the celebrated miniseries for their authentic, prestigious performances, which would make it strange to see a comedic actor appear at random. Shogun has its humorous moments, but the show generally handles its material with seriousness and realism.

46-year-old actor and TV producer Rob McElhenney is best known for his role as Mac on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He’s also known as the creator and star of Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest and has been involved in the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham alongside Ryan Reynolds. Both It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Shogun are developed by FX, contributing to the confusion over the character resemblance.

No, Rob McElhenney Is Not In Shogun

The Character Tomono Is Played By Actor Hitoshi Masaki In Shogun

Despite a hilarious, uncanny resemblance, the actor in Shogun is not Rob McElhenney. The actor in question is named Hitoshi Masaki, who’s been a character actor and extra on various productions over the past decade. In Shogun, he plays the character Tomono in just one episode. Still, the resemblance was notable enough to spread across X, with McElhenney even chiming in to share his thoughts on the matter, agreeing on the similarities.

It may not actually be him, but the humor of the situation aligns well with the bizarre comedy of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. His character, Mac, is the type of person to find Shogun absolutely awesome, at least for the samurai action. There was a similar gag in the episode Who Got Dee Pregnant? where Mac dressed up as Aragorn from Lord of the Rings for Halloween, clearly not understanding the material or even the name of the character he’d gone as.

Rob McElhenney Has Had Surprising Cameos In The Past

Rob McElhenney Has Had Cameo Appearances In Game Of Thrones & Lost

The reason some viewers may have been quick to guess it was actually him is that Rob McElhenney has had some cameo appearances in TV shows before. McElhenney is a serious television and pop culture fan, exhibited in various ways throughout his career. In It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the episode “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award” makes some meta references to The Wire and why it never won Emmys. In that sense, being a fan of a prestige drama like Shogun seems right up his wheelhouse.

As for cameos, McElhenney had a minor role in Lost season 3 and season 6 as one of the Others, named Aldo, who isn’t the brightest character on the show. Rob McElhenney also had a brief appearance on Game of Thrones, which he was a big fan of for years, even hosting an interview with the show’s cast and producers in 2013, titled “An Evening with Game of Thrones.” It probably wouldn’t have been in good taste for him to play a Japanese elder in Shogun, but some minor cameo on the show wouldn’t have seemed out of the realm of possibility!