Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece has received a lot of praise and applause. The entire cast did a fantastic job at bringing the One Piece characters to life. Especially Iñaki Godoy, who plays the protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and has been highly praised.
The show is based on Eiichiro Oda’s manga of the same name. It has been running for over 25 years and is known as one of the best manga and anime series out there. Fans of the manga and anime series had high hopes for the live-action series.
And since it came under the prestigious Netflix banner, the expectations were skyrocketing.
Similarly, there were high expectations and pressure on Godoy, to do justice to the fan-favorite Luffy. Before the show was officially released on the streaming platform on August 31, 2023, Godoy spilled some beans about his character from the series.
Iñaki Godoy talked about playing Monkey D. Luffy
When he was asked about Luffy’s ability to stretch and act like rubber and how he did it in the show. He said the show had an amazing stunt team and an amazing special effects team. The two teams worked to do the choreography of Luffy. So, Godoy just did his action scenes and he directed him saying (via GamesRadar),
“So in this part, you have to like throw the punch, and then you have to imagine that the punch in the punch goes like all the way, then you wait like three seconds and it hits, and then you pull it back.”
He added that he just had to use his imagination while playing Luffy in One Piece, which is his job. Godoy says,
“I imagine things! Sometimes I’m a rubber man, sometimes I’m a chupacabra. I’ve had to do a lot of things where I’ve had to imagine extraordinary things happening with my body. I had to use my imagination. I looked at how rubbery things moved.”
Inaki Godoy credited the VFX Team for Pulling it all off
Godoy went on to say that the Luffy from the One Piece anime series also played an important source of inspiration to him. He saw the way the anime Luffy fights and took inspiration from him. “I can use that as a reference, then that’s great,”
He shared that he saw how Luffy throws a punch in the anime. His technique of pulling back and sometimes putting his hand right over his bicep, and the way it moves a little bit.
Godoy says he used it as a visual reference for his action scenes involving the stretchy powers.
Finally, he credits the people working behind the scenes of One Piece for most part of the show and how it comes out. “But the big people here are the special effects people and the stunt people. Those are the ones who really had the challenge to figure it out,” he says.
One Piece live-action debuted on Netflix on August 31, 2023. Within just 20 days of release had crossed 50 Million views. It has an IMDb rating of 8.4 out of 10 and was among the Top 10 in 93 countries at release.
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