After over two years since its announcement, Netflix‘s live-action adaptation of the beloved manga and anime series One Piece has officially begun production.
Netflix Geeked posted a tweet that announced the production being underway with a series of images of the cast. The photos include one of Emily Rudd, who will be playing the role of Nami, sporting a One Piece t-shirt. The other photo in the tweet is of fellow co-stars Jacob Romero Gibson, Iñaki Godoy, and Taz Skylar, who will play Usopp, the series lead Monkey D. Luffy, and Sanji, respectively. Other members of the cast include Mackenyu as master of three sword styles, Roronoa Zoro. While production just starting, the actual debut of the series is still far away, Netflix has previously revealed the name of the first episode, “Romance Dawn,” sharing the name of the one-off written in 1996 by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda and is what kicked off the global phenomenon as it is known today.
One Piece is a manga series that debuted in 1997 with an anime series beginning in 1999. The live-action series was originally announced back in January 2020. The story follows Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat crew on their globe-trotting quest to find the titular “One Piece,” the legendary treasure of the former King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger. The anime series currently sits at 1008 episodes and the manga sits at 1038 chapters, having sold over 490 million copies across 58 countries and regions worldwide, making it the top-selling manga series of all time.
Steven Maeda will act as showrunner and executive producer on the live-action adaptation project. Maeda also acts as co-writer alongside Matt Owens. Oda will also be attached to the project, serving as an executive producer along with Maeda as well as Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios. Netflix is producing the series in partnership with Tomorrow and will take care of the physical production process. The adaptation of One Piece will join the growing list of live-action adaptations of anime and manga series from Netflix, following in the footsteps of 2017’s Death Note film and the 2021 series Cowboy Bebop, which was canceled by the streaming service after one season.
There is no release date or window currently announced for the live-action One Piece series but is set to premiere on Netflix. You can see the tweet from Netflix Geeked announcing the start of production down below.
ONE PIECE is officially in production the road for Luffy to become the Pirate King has just begun pic.twitter.com/n2CzadWXh7
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) February 1, 2022
via Collider