Production designer Richard Bridgland got a chance to share what it was like bringing the iconic manga One Piece to live-action. Given just how iconic many locations and visuals have become over the years, it was a daunting task for anyone to tackle.
It seems that the production team wanted to ensure that while they kept the fantastical elements from the original manga, their main goal was still to ensure that the One Piece series was kept as realistic as possible. As such, it led to a few changes that needed to happen one of them being the way the figureheads looed for the various ships.
It’s interesting, with all the figureheads of the ships, I couldn’t just copy them straight out of the manga and make them in real life, they would look kind of goofy. I had to create a credible real-life version of them. So, what was apparent to me from going into the manga was that all of these figureheads were actually kind of symbols for the spirit of that character.
Richard Bridgland
There have been some jokes online about the Going Merry ship looking a bit creepy with the goat face screaming based on some behind-the-scenes images. Yet, once the poster was released the way they brought the figurehead into live-action highlights the “merry” part of Going Merry. So, it’ll be quite exciting to see the other ships brought to life.
Source: Collider
