Author: Joseph Aberl

It must’ve been a wild journey for showrunner Matt Owens. Starting off as a massive fan of One Piece, he went on to work closely with Eiichiro Oda, the man who created the iconic seafaring adventure, to bring it to live-action. Plus, he got the chance to explore ideas and concepts that were never fully realized in the original series but simply hinted at. One of those is the iconic battle between Mr. 7 and Zoro, which kicks off the character’s introduction in the live-action and sets up a second season.

In an Instagram post, the showrunner shared that the appearance of Baroque Works was one of the first ideas he pitched Oda as a way to introduce the character of Zoro before we arrive in Shells Town while also adding something that is canon but was never actually shown in the material. He jokingly shares that even Oda had to ask his editor about it and was greeted with a full drawing of the character the next day, which was the first time he got an actual design besides a doodle from his SPS section.

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The design was also carried over into the live-action adaptation and gave us our first glimpse at what is to come beyond the East Blue. It also marked Oda being impressed by his knowledge of the series and its world which was just the first discussion he had with the creator, who even calls “a friend” in the post. There have been many hints that he has grown close with many involved in the production, which will hopefully also mark a stronger bond going into the second season.

Source: Instagram

If it comes to filmmaking technology that had the biggest 180 public opinion, the Volume swiftly lost its standing after seemingly being a necessary tool during the pandemic. The idea is simple: you have LED screens built around that enable actors to interact with elements rather than just using a blank screen of various colors. The Mandalorian revolutionized technology, but its overuse in a lot of major films led to the internet changing its opinion on the tech quite hastily.

So, it was quite refreshing when One Piece hit Netflix and one of its biggest selling points was that it built pretty much most of its relevant sets. They also filmed in South Africa on water to make sure that the sea-faring adventure actually took place on the water. It seems a big reason for that is director Marc Jobst according to cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker in an interview with The Direct.

My director comes from the theater. So I think he was very much against that type of filmmaking for a show like this. He really felt like it was important for the actors to be in a real environment. Even when we shot [the] Gold Roger [sequence], even though that was a lot of blue screen, he took us to a real location and we shot in a castle so that they were surrounded by the walls and that they felt like they were in a space

Nicole Hirsch Whitaker

Of course, the use of blue screen still remains but most of the elements our cast interacts with are practical. So, the screens are simply there to help make the world feel real and ensure that the limitations of filming on a water stage don’t include the freeway from he background when the cast is supposed to be on the open seas. Whitaker also goes on to highlight that the story and use of daylight supported what they wanted to achieve with he series.

Some people might say that that’s not something that will happen in the future, but I do think if actors fight for that, as opposed to being in a room. And listen, the Volume is incredible, it’s amazing and it’s a wonderful tool. And it’s it’s really important because we have to embrace it for so many reasons. But I think for this show, a story about family and being out in the world with a lot of exteriors and a lot of daylight, I think this was the right way to go.

Nicole Hirsch Whitaker

There’ll likely be a point when the Volume gets a new time to shine with more additional support rather than being the main way the film. We don’t know if future use will remain but it seems safe to say that One Piece is going to remain focused on utilizing real sets moving forward, as it was one of the series’ biggest selling points. Season 2 also featured a variety of environments that’ll give them fun opportunities to establish a variety of fun environments for the cast to interact with.

Source: The Direct

This news actually broke earlier in the month. However, given that the WGA strike was still active and its successful resolution had a higher priority, now that a deal has finally been made and SGA is on the horizon to get one, it seems like the right time to cover the story. Randy Troy, who is a long-time One Piece content creator, and has worked in the industry as an actor and writer, has joined the writer’s room for the second season of Netflix’s live-action adaptation.

The official announcement was made a few weeks ago on Twitter during the WGA strike that he is involved but was focused on ensuring the strike was a success. We know that the scrips are supposedly ready according to a producer of the One Piece series, which means he was likely already involved before the strike happened as they were preparing the script ahead of Season 1’s launch. While they didn’t know at the time they would be getting a renewal, it definitely was to keep everything going to ensure they can avoid a large gap between seasons’ release.

Yes, it's true!

Due to the strike, I can not and will not elaborate further until we reach a fair deal, but I'm so very thankful and honored to give back to a story that means so incredibly much to me. Here's to our unions winning soon so we can get back to the writers room! https://t.co/VavF9dr67o

— Randy Troy (@RandyTroy) September 17, 2023

It also marks the second time that a content creator who has heavily joined the series’ long history gained a role as part of the live-action production. The first season also involved Artur – The Library of Ohara who supported keeping everything within the timeline that the original manga series followed. So, it’s exciting to see the heavy involvement of people from the community that’ll help this live-action adaptation flourish and grow going into its second, and likely even more ambitious next season.

Source: twitter

It looks like people have been enjoying the adventure toward the Grand Line, as the live-action One Piece series has remained the #1 most-watched show on Netflix for a third week in a row. The adventure series pulled in 10M views with around 75.5 M hours viewed. It was a close race with Virgin River, which is in its fifth season but still couldn’t dethrone the manga adaptation while Who is Erin Carter? remained in the top three.

It looks like Netflix knew where the series was going and that is why they gave it a second season renewal early on; not common for the streaming service. The big fear was that the third week would see a massive drop after a slight increase in its second, but it held surprisingly strong with “only” a 48% drop. It still seems unlikely it’ll kick Queen Charlotte from the Top 10 spot but shows that if they keep a consistent release, the show has a good chance to grow over time.

It’ll be interesting to see if the show manages to still hold strong. It’s facing some big competition going into its fourth week with Sex Education’s final season and a new season of Love is Blind. So, we’ll see if the series will hold on to the top three or if it manages to even still hold unto the second spot going into its fourth week. For now, we’ll just have to wait but it does continue to seem like word-of-mouth is strong and shows the potential for the series.

Source: Netflix, The Wrap

Just as the live-action One Piece series was in its earliest stages, there was much fanfare for Jamie Lee Curtis to join the Netflix series potentially. Of course, at the time we had no idea if there even would be a second season or if it’d manage to make a big enough splash with audiences. The actress has been a long-time fan of the series and is friends with Chopper voice actress Brina Palencia.

While she mentioned in interviews, that she’d love to play Robin, she knows that she might not fit that role anymore but has openly discussed playing Dr. Kureha. Chopper is her favorite character so the role just seems to make sense. As One Piece has now been renewed for a second season, the actress has gone out of her way to highlight that she is going to campaign for the role once actors and writers are paid what they are owed.

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Some eagle-eyed readers also noticed that Matt Owens, the co-showrunner for the first season, highlighted that she won’t “need to lobby” and they’ll discuss the role once everything has been wrapped up. So, it seems like Curtis is a definite casting addition if they can finally get AMPTP to pay everyone what they deserve. With scripts pretty much ready according to the show’s producer, it’s the only big hindrance keeping them from getting the ball rolling on the production.

Source: Instagram

In just two weeks, Netflix has done the impossible and already renewed the live-action One Piece series. Okay, might be overdoing it but in a clever little message from Eiichiro Oda, who seems to be loving his puppet Transponder Snail, used the opportunity to confirm that the live-action series is indeed going to return for a second season. Not only that, but he goes out of his way to highlight the arrival of an iconic ship’s doctor for the Straw Hats. As an adorable little extra, he even draws up an adorable drawing based on his manga look and states that it’ll still take some time to finish the scripts.

NAKAMA!!! 🏴‍☠️👑 It fills us with great joy to give you this message directly from Oda-Sensei. ⛵️ #OnePieceNetflix #OnePieceLiveAction pic.twitter.com/X8ZOLPkaXD

— ONE PIECE(ワンピース) Netflix (@onepiecenetflix) September 14, 2023

It’s great news and hopefully a reflection of how much the studio believes in this project. Of course, we don’t know when a second season will be able to release given that Hollywood is still on strike. Hopefully, they will finally have a resolution to solve the issue; being them not paying their actors and writers fairly. It’s interesting that he says the scripts still need time given that Tomorrow Studios already confirmed they are pretty much ready to shoot.

Their big goal would be to avoid taking longer than two years for the second season to release, as that commonly has not been beneficial due to the long wait time outside of a well-established IP The show is #1 two weeks in a row and it’s uncertain if it’ll keep it up going into its third week, where they commonly see a drop. Maybe a cynical outlook could see this renewal as a way to boost its viewership going into the third week to see if it’s worth it. Either way, it’s great that we’ll get to see the Arabasta saga come to life.

source: Twitter

Showrunners Steven Maeda and Matt Owens had quite the challenge when adapting a series like One Piece. Not only is it quite unique with its more cartoon-inspired style, but generally adapting anime or manga is considered quite challenging. While there have been a few projects that did manage to pull it off, any adaptation from some of the bigger names hasn’t left the impression many would hope they would.

Tackling a series like One Piece was considered “unadaptable” due to the way Eiichiro Oda drew and wrote the series. It’s crazy to think after some of the earlier reactions to the teaser that the series actually has a strong critical reception across multiple platforms for its hopeful message and more optimistic outlook; especially in how it avoids being a very dark series. In an interview with IGN, Steven Maeda highlights that they wanted to make the series stand out with the “sunny and blue skies and open water” just to make sure “it felt good” watching the series.

That was a very conscious choice to have the show be fun and sunny and blue skies and open water and to have it feel good in addition to fun and thrilling, and a little traumatic at times when you get into some of those emotional moments and character backstories.

Steven Maeda

He also talks about how it was quite a new experience adapting the iconic series in a live-action adaptation that isn’t just for younger audiences, but also teenagers and adults. Monkey D. Luffy’s story is definitely something that also can inspire anyone of every age, no matter if they know the series or not.

It was definitely a breath of fresh air to be putting something out that felt like it had a sunnier view. And the trick in that is to take that optimism and not have it seem treacly and separate. You don’t want it to just be for little kids. You want it to resonate with teens and with adults and people who fell in love with the manga or the anime. We want to bring all those fans in. And then we also want to rope in new fans who have no idea what One Piece is, which was another challenge to find that balance between the fans of the underlying material and new people who had never heard of it before.

Steven Maeda

They also set one important rule: “embrace silly.” In an era where comic book adaptations try to either be super serious or keep everything as realistic as possible, having a show just being what it is makes it stand out. Not every show can have a pirate pillage a ship with glitter in her canons while the cannonballs have hearts painted on them.

As far as tone though, it was always: Let’s embrace silly. Let’s embrace the over-the-top nature of it. But at the same time, let’s try to make the emotion feel real and grounded. And then let’s take something like the Love Duck, which is, let’s face it, a big pirate ship that fires glittering cannonballs and has hearts on its sails, and could be absolutely ridiculous. But let’s take that ship and paint it and do all the things we need to do, build it, and then sand it down and make it look like it’s been at sea for 15 years, in order to try and at least bring some level of grit to what is otherwise a sunny and silly look.

Steven Maeda

The only challenge they had was to ensure that even with all the fun, the set design and costumes needed to showcase that time passed. Some early criticisms of the teaser trailer where that it looked “too clean” which led to some statements of it being more like cosplay rather than the real world. Still, once we saw the entire series we got a better look at everything in context.

Source: IGN

We all knew that there would be changes to the live-action adaptation of One Piece. There are a variety of characters that don’t quite serve the story the way an eight-episode structure would allow. Still, it seems that they have gone through quite a few different versions before landing on the one they currently have according to showrunner Steven Maeda. One big part was also including Arlong much earlier in the season to tie the East Blue together.

A lot of different versions of the show were discussed. Some that were a little further away from the manga, some that were closer. We ended up going a lot closer, which I’m really glad we were able to do. And it really was a discussion about why we were doing what we were doing. And so for example, with Arlong, the idea was, in an eight-episode television season, you want to have the sense that there is some big obstacle standing at the end of your journey. And so to introduce Arlong in Episode 7 and 8 only would’ve felt like: “Well, wait, who is this guy? Okay, yeah. He’s really ferocious, but I don’t really know him yet. I’ve got to get to know him.”

Steven Maeda

Of course, moving Arlong earlier into the story, it leads to a bigger challenge. Having to avoid adding just more characters to a story beat, someone had to be replaced and it seems Don Krieg was the easiest choice given how he’s more a physical threat rather than one relevant to the overall journey. His failure at the Grand Line, which remains in the story, is the one element that did make it into the story.

And so we said: “Hey, let’s move him up. Let’s introduce him in an early episode as a big bad threat that would return later in the season. And then rather than Krieg, who is a standalone antagonist who doesn’t take us really anywhere new, let’s introduce Arlong there instead.” And we still got Krieg in the show. But let’s try something a little bit different so the new audience gets the sense that there is something big and forbidding out there waiting for us.

Steven Maeda

While not everyone will enjoy the change; change is famously difficult to accept, it still offers a clever way to have the East Blue connect better. Originally, One Piece started off as a weekly story with quite a few disconnected stories outside of the surprise reveal surrounding Nami. It wasn’t until Alabasta that the series took on the structure that it famously has and it would be interesting to see if they have an easier time structuring a potential second season.

Source: IGN

The live-action adaptation of One Piece gave us a unique backdrop with many iconic sets. More than what one would expect from most modern adaptations nowadays after the pandemic limited productions in many ways. Plus, it’s a pirate adventure that’ll take place across the wide seas of the East Blue. One of the reasons they decided to film in South Africa seems to be due to executive producer Chris Symes‘ experience working on Black Sails according to producer Becky Clements.

We knew we were going to shoot there because Chris Symes, our executive producer, produced Black Sails, and he built many pirate ships for that series. There were a couple of them in place already that we knew we would have an advantage and be able to refurbish.

Becky Clements

While the location offered some beautiful and fitting backdrops for the various islands, it did bring with it, its own challenges. Clements highlights that the weather was a big challenge as it limited when they could film the various sequences; not too surprising for the long production time in 2022.

One of the challenges you have in South Africa is weather, you can shoot best at a certain time of year, so that always comes into play, and even the weather cooperated, which isn’t always the case. So we had many challenges, but we had the most professional and awe inspiring team there that just helped us pull it off.

Becky Clements

Of course, future seasons have the advantage that they have some experience in, and who knows if they will fully stick to South Africa due to the variety of climates they will face in the Grand Line. Of course, though, there are many potential ways they can make that work with the sound stages provided, as they will still need to travel with the Going Merry from island to island. Here’s hoping a season two renewal is just around the corner.

Source: Deadline