This week, Netflix officially renewed the live-action One Piece series for a second season, only two weeks after the series premiere.
The Straw Hat crew is not done shaping up quite yet…at least for the real-life counterparts. The One Piece live-action series has been officially renewed, as Netflix put out a surprise video on social media. The video had the manga creator Eiichiro Oda (masked by graphics as usual) break the news in a classic quirky skit way. The fan base clearly has a major following, as many fans have already voiced their opinions on casting the main characters for the arcs to come.
The opening of the video begins with a Transponder Snail from the live-action series, and Oda-senpai answers the call. “To the Straw Hat Grand Fleet…What did you think of season one of the live-action One Piece? I spent a long time working on it with Netflix and Tomorrow Studios,” he said in his little skit. “It seems people around the world have been enjoying the show, which makes the hard work from the production team truly worth it. To everyone who’s been a fan of One Piece for years, and to those who experienced One Piece for the first time, thank you so much,” Oda continued.
Then, he dropped the news that Netflix picked up the series for a second season. While Oda noted that it will “take a while to get the scripts ready”, he did offer up a teaser for the next arc. “From here on, it seems to me the Straw Hats will need a great doctor. We will see!” Oda added.
If you have not watched anime or read the manga, be prepared for cuteness overload. The next arc or the major one coming up will be the Drum Island arc, which will add the fifth member to the Straw Hats crew. Of course, feel free to checkout the new member aka reindeer named Tony Tony Chopper, who will be the ship doctor aboard the Going Merry.
Fans are always pooling in their thoughts on cast ideas and such. One of the biggest ones that fans want is for Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis to play Dr. Kureha. Curtis admitted in one interview that she would have loved to play Nico Robin (another character/Straw Hat member introduced in future arcs), but would probably be more suited to play Dr. Kureha. Dr. Kureha is often attributed for being a “wizened old crone lady”, as she is the one who essentially teaches and gives Chopper his doctorate degree.
With the One Piece live-action season being No. 1 in Netflix’s Top 10 for a second week in a row, it only made sense that the show would get picked up for another season. The same executive producers from Tomorrow Studios, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements also worked on the live-action adaptation for Cowboy Bebop, which premiered on the same streamer last year.
Unfortunately, the fan reception was poor, or mixed at best for that series. “Here’s what we learned. You have to have a buy-in from the creator. The creator of Cowboy Bebop did not want anything to do with it…So having the buy-in of the creator, having Oda buy into this and bless it, made a big difference.” Adelstein shared.
However, in an interview with the producers this week with Deadline, revealed that they “have hopes for 12 season, there’s so much material.” This was all said before the announcement of season 2 getting greenlit, but they also talked about how they had plans on how they would map out the arcs for at least the next six seasons. Another difference in success for the One Piece live-action was that the fans on Tik Tok actually praised the series instead of roasting it outright.
While the future of the live-action series has hopes for a second season, hopefully the hype keeps building. The production may be halted due to the double-strike of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, but fingers crossed that the Iñaki Godoy-led Straw Hats will continue to thrive in the near-future. Season one down, many more to go!
