Blog

While it’s been revealed that the scripts for the second season are not ready as initially revealed by One Piece’s producer, they do have some outlines ready. As such, Deadline used the opportunity to at least ask showrunner Matt Owens what the overarching theme might be going into the second season. The first had a strong emphasis on One Piece’s core theme of chasing your dreams but it seems they want to expand on that a bit more.

Without saying too much, and speaking to any new characters that we might meet, I would say a major theme that we’re working with in Season 2 is the challenge of leadership. From Luffy’s perspective, he’s got his crew now, and they are setting out to the Grand Line. They’re doing the thing, and there are a lot of challenges that come with that responsibility. And that theme ties into some other stories and characters that I won’t give away just yet. But the challenge and leadership is a big theme for us in Season 2.

Matt Owens

The Grand Line is a treacherous environment where survival isn’t as simple as one would think going by the run time of the series. So, it’s a perfect opportunity to explore what it means to be a leader, which also ties into some of the strongest moments from the Arabasta arc. The contrast between one major pirate crew that we’ll be introduced to has already been hinted at in the first season.

Plus, we know that Smoker has a major role and would also have a leadership role for his marine squad. so, there’s a lot of potential to build upon the contrast between the various major players in this theme and it feels like a natural continuation of what we saw with Luffy in the Baratie episodes as well. Here’s hoping the wait won’t bee to long.

Source: Deadline

Due to studios not paying their writers and actors, the WGA and SAG strike left its scars on many productions that were slowly wrapping up. Yet, some still managed to work their way towards a release, such as the big release of One Piece in August. We didn’t know just how hard the live-action adaptation was affected by the strikes.

In an interview with Deadline after the WGA deal had finally been made, showrunner Matt Owens was finally able to talk about the show and also offered some insight into how it affected his work on the project. As it turns out, he was not able to truly finish the project but was “very close” to a final version. As such, most of the team had to carry on with the work while Eiichiro Oda was still supervising the project.

We were very close. I had just gotten to Tokyo to meet with Oda again in April and have conversations with him about where the cuts were, some things that he wanted to see. So we were back in post when the strike hit. We were picture-locked on most things, there was still a lot of visual effects, final music; it was mostly finals. I’d seen stages of the majority of it, which was another heartbreaking thing about it — I didn’t get to finish the show. But luckily, my post-production team, the effects team, they know me, and they know the show. So for having to step away, I still felt like the show was in the best possible hands. And Oda was still involved, even though we were not communicating about the show.

Matt Owens

That is a shame but also highlights just how much love from everyone involved was poured into this series, as the lack of an active showrunner could’ve shown its fangs in other ways. The praise to the team working on the show is definitely a good sign of how far they managed to carry on even without Owens actively being able to be involved while supporting fair wages in the industry. Though, he also had some fun getting to see how some things turned out once the final reveal came.

It was exciting because I had never seen the final final cuts of this show until the rest of the world did, so I did feel like there were some little surprises for me to discover, Oh, that’s how that turned out, that’s f*cking great, things like that.

Matt Owens

Here’s hoping that going into the second season, the production will be able to be part of the full journey this time around. That makes the renewal even sweeter, as it gives him the chance to fully be part of the process he started and what he invested five years of his life according to the interview.

Source: Deadline

There have been many discussions ahead of the release of Season 1 of One Piece. The live-action adaptation was initially set to have ten episodes; something we hinted wouldn’t stay as initially announced by Oda before the pandemic. Still, it was later revealed to only consist of eight episodes, an internal mandate from Netflix, and nothing towards the actual series at the time.

So, many wondered if we would even get to truly visit all East Blue islands, and once the series was released, we sadly only got a brief glimpse at Loguetown in the first episode. Still, they managed to tie the series’ main themes throughout without the necessity of the town that is named prologue and epilogue. In a Reddit AMA, showrunner Matt Owens confirmed that the reason it wasn’t included was due to the episode reduction.

Skipped? Never! It wasn’t included in season 1 because our episode number got reduced. And to try to cram it in would not have done service to it or the story it had to share space with. Loguetown is not “cut” we just haven’t gotten there yet!

Matt Owens

It’s not too surprising and it is a shame that they didn’t get to keep their initial plans for the episode structure. There are some small elements where one can tell they likely adapted the pacing from that initial pitch but it manages to pull it all together in creative ways. Plus, the tease in the first post-credit sequence hints at a perfect set-up with Loguetown introducing Smoker as a major antagonist going into the new season.

Source: Reddit

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.

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