Tag: One Piece

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

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

One Piece was released a week ago and it hit the #1 spot worldwide even with a strong competitor in Who is Erin Carter? but there’s still some uncertainty if we can expect a second season to be released. The coming weeks will tell us more, but going by first reactions, Netflix does seem to see it as a global success.

It may not be breaking Wednesday’s records after all, as it has a lower #1 stat weekly but had a very strong performance since worldwide, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters stated that the series had cleared “a very high bar” and goes on to say it is “massively popular and a success around the world.”

This is a very high bar to meet, to basically take a storied manga and deliver it in English-language, live action,” the exec said. “Pretty much all the haters are out, looking for a reason to hate you for it. To be able to deliver it and have it be massively popular and a success around the world is amazing to see.

Greg Peters

That is great news and a recent comment from Tomorrow Studios’ producers is also hinting that the studio is quite happy with its performance. After Cowboy Bebop barely managed to debut in the Top 10 before fizzling out shortly after, it’s great news that they are seeing the potential. There’s a lot of potential for the series to grow with each new season and could become a mainstay for the streamer once they start paying their actors and writers fairly.

Source: Deadline

Sadly, we still don’t have an official announcement from Netflix that a second season will indeed happen. The initial numbers are a promising start for this adaptation, but with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike, it’s unclear if work ever was done on a potential second season but a WGA listing some time ago already hinted that work may have started on the scripts, which isn’t uncommon to start production as fast as possible.

Now, we have a confirmation by Tomorrow Studios CEO, Marty Adelstein, that they do have the script ready for a second season. Not only that but producer Becky Clements believes that once the strike ends, they could have it all wrapped up to publish within a year or 18 months. That would be a good turnaround but is halted by the lack of an official announcement and companies not paying actors and writers what they are owed.

We’ve got scripts ready. Realistically, hopefully, a year away, if we move very quickly, and that is a possibility. Somewhere between a year and 18 months, we could be ready for air.

Becky Clements

The show opened to the top spot with 18.5M in its first four days and word-of-mouth seems quite strong going by its Social Media performance, as well as positive critical reception. Of course, quality doesn’t always mean they will renew it but the series has the challenge to remain a top performer in the upcoming weeks. Adelstein

They keep it, as you know, close to the vest until post-launch. But with Netflix’s support of the title, we expected it to be number one and we sensed their research and algorithms probably saw the possibility for that. But in our subsequent calls post-launch, we have been told that we have exceeded expectations, which is also fantastic.

Becky Clements

If they “exceeded expectations” it’s a good sign that the show is doing well. So, the upcoming weeks will be crucial as they’ll show the series’ growing power as a series that could also give them hope for future seasons. Who knows if a second-season renewal was initially in the plans early before the strike happened, but that’s just wishful thinking. We’ll just have to wait a bit until we know what the future has in store fo the future live-action king of the pirates.

Source: Variety

Director Marc Jobst has collected quite an impressive filmography over the years with his work on Daredevil, Luke Cage, The Punisher, Black Sails, The Witcher, Hannibal, and more. Now, he’s added the first two episodes of the new One Piece series that was released last week and has managed to gather quite a positive reception after many feared it would fall into the usual pitfalls of live-action adaptations of anime and manga.

Now, after hyping up the show quite a bit with a variety of postings, the director shared with The Streamr that he’s definitely excited to return for a second season and he’d love to get a chance to work with everyone involved once again. He also highlights that they “did some service int he community” as part of their stay in South Africa while filming.

Oh, listen, of course, I want to come back. You know, I love this show. I love the actors. Hugely we bonded we worked, we rehearsed. We played silly games, we did some service in the community. You know, we worked together to kind of build trust, and there’s no way I’d like to let that go. Just like that. So yes, it sounds to do that.

Marc Jobst

He definitely had a hand in defining the way the show came together, which isn’t an easy task considering what they set out to adapt into live-action. The love for the close-up lens was certainly an interesting artistic choice that sometimes could’ve been toned down, the show is visually unique from most projects that are out there, especially in how they had to approach each episode as its own self-contained story that expands into a bigger one.

Source: The Streamr