Netflix chose to adapt One Piece, one of the most famous, successful, and popular anime and manga franchises, to a live-action series. The reception to it has been generally positive, with both fans and critics alike being impressed by various things, in particular, the mostly faithful retelling of the storyline written by mangaka Eiichiro Oda.
Getting Oda’s blessing and approval was very important for everyone involved in the making of the show, from the showrunners to the directors to the actors. Oda had his own concerns as well, and one of them was that earlier CGI and VFX technology hadn’t advanced enough to bring his manga and anime to life. That changed over the years though, and he took the plunge with Netflix. But even that wasn’t Oda’s biggest concern with One Piece.
What was Eiichiro Oda’s biggest concern about Netflix’s One Piece?
Eiichiro Oda’s biggest concern with One Piece on Netflix was finding the right actor to play Monkey D. Luffy, the main protagonist of the show and the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. In a video released by Netflix, Iñaki Godoy, the actor cast as Luffy, went all the way to Tokyo in Japan to meet Eiichiro Oda in person. There, Oda told Godoy about his concerns and how Godoy helped assuage them, saying:
“My biggest worry about the live-action was whether we would be able to find someone like Luffy. “But I was watching various audition tapes, and when I saw you, I kind of started laughing. You’re just like the character I draw in the manga. I intuitively thought, ‘That’s Luffy’… I can’t imagine anyone else playing this role… I am so grateful that you were born to be just like Luffy.”
Upon hearing these words, Godoy teared up, especially since he had confessed to being nervous before the meeting.
Apart from Godoy as Luffy, the series stars Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanji, all of whom are the Straw Hat Pirates featured this season.
Will there be a second season of One Piece on Netflix?
As of now, we don’t have any official word on a second season of One Piece on Netflix. But what we do have are Netflix’s numbers on how many people have seen the show: 18.5 million views and 140 million hours viewed over its first four days of release. We also know that the scripts for a potential second season have been written, and there is even a planned release window, which is between September 2024 and March 2025. This was revealed by some of the producers of the show.
However, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes complicate matters as production on One Piece’s second season cannot begin until those end, since neither the actors are available nor can the scripts be further worked upon. We might know more in the future once the strikes are resolved.
One Piece is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: YouTube, Screenrant, IGN
