Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements from Tomorrow Studios were big drivers for pushing their work on the live-action adaptation. After the series managed to debut at a strong 18.5M viewers in its first premiere weekend, it went on to remain at the top spot in an otherwise soft first week of September. The show’s future still remains a mystery as no official confirmation has been made for a second season, but the producers are definitely just waiting for the chance.
Clements points out that they “have hopes for 12 seasons, there’s so much material” given that the series is still ongoing after 26 years and it’s unsure if it’ll end in the next three or five years after entering its “final saga.” Though there’s no certainty that the series to last that long given just how these streaming models work, it does seem that they at least have a roadmap for at least the next six years.
Everything we do is in concert with Netflix, [manga publisher] Shueisha and Oda-san, they are a part of that conversation. We’ve definitely had more thorough conversations about what we would do with Season 2 should we have the opportunity, and then less extensive conversations about where we would go for season three to six. The one thing I would say, we’re all unified in the parts of the manga that you just absolutely cannot eliminate, and that’s our guiding principle, the stories that we know and the characters that we know are important to the fans. So that really is the start in breaking future seasons. It will require a lot of conversations, but we feel lucky to have have the roadmap.
Becky Clements
We recently heard that the second season is already mapped out and ready script-wise. So, Netflix and the other studios just need to pay their writers and actors fairly so that they can jump straight into the next season. They know that getting these seasons out at regular intervals will ensure that viewership will rise, but it all depends on when they can start filming. With a strong exterior shot-focused production, they are just waiting to see how things move along before they can jump in.
I don’t know what Netflix is thinking. It would benefit us to move more quickly. Once you get into the summer months there it can get pretty windy and wet — our summer months, their winter months. It didn’t stop us last year, we did some reshooting and we shot later than we anticipated, and it worked out just fine. We try to find ways to minimize exteriors to create a safe environment for shooting and we do stuff inside when we need to.
Becky Clements
So, here’s hoping that Netflix will finally push the market to heal as there will definitely be quite a drought next year. The show’s initial viewership does seem promising for a potential second season to grow even more if they play their cards right and with a show that has the potential to grow beyond, it may be smart to think in advance to keep people interested to come back and even grow its audience.
Source: Deadline
