One Piece is one of the world’s most popular animes and is the best-selling manga series of all time. It’s even the best-selling comic book internationally with a higher grossing media franchise than Superman. And now Netflix is making it into a live-action anime. Netflix has a capable cast lined up and has the series creator Eiichiro Oda executive producing. Hopefully, it will be a show that sticks to the real tenants of what makes One Piece good in the first place.

One Piece has maintained sincere popularity in the United States since it debuted. And it has had an even greater following in Japan, where the manga originated. The series has over 1000 shows and a fan base that refuses to quit. It follows the story of Monkey D. Luffy on his journey to become King of the Pirates and find the famous One Piece treasure. The series is stuffed to the gills with strange characters with incredible superpowers. The powers were granted to them upon eating the mysterious Devil Fruit. But eating those fruits comes at the cost of losing your ability to swim, which, in a world of oceans and pirate ships, is a high cost indeed. But now, the brilliant series that was once new in the US is getting its own live-action TV series on Netflix.

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Here’s what we know so far!

One Piece: The Plot

     Madman / Crunchy Roll

This live-action One Piece will follow the East Blue Saga and will show follow Luffy as he unites the Straw Hat Pirates for the first time. So Luffy will begin as a boy with a dream to get a crew together and find the One Piece treasure that will make him the Pirate King. The treasure once belonged to Gol D. Roger, the greatest pirate who ever lived, but now One Piece has fallen into legend, years after the pirate’s death.

One Piece: The Cast & Crew

     Netflix

Steven Maeda and Matt Owens will be co-writing, co-showrunning, and executive producing. Both have impressive resumes under their belt, as Maeda has worked on shows like Lost, CSI: Miami, and written for The X-Files. While Owens hasn’t produced before, he’s worked as a writer on many Marvel Extended Universe projects like Luke Cage, Agents of Shield, and The Defenders.

Netflix is coordinating the production with Tomorrow Studios with Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements executive producing. Adelstein worked on Teen Wolf, and Clements helped produce the Snowpiercer TV series. Both were involved in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop which was sadly canceled after one season. The list of executive producers will also include Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece, who will hopefully help the showrunners to maintain integrity with their adaptation, which is often something to worry about with live-action animes.

Most of the cast has already been announced, with the straw hat crew being led by Iñaki Godoy. Godoy has worked on many Latinx TV shows, but this seems to be his first foray into another market. Mackenyu will play Roronoa Zoro. The son of legendary actor/director Sonny Chiba, Mackenyu will undoubtedly already have all the skills needed to be an accomplished swordsman. He’s acted in projects such as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamon is Unbreakable - Chapter 1, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and the first part of the live-action adaptation of Ruroni Kenshin: The Final. Nami will be played by Emily Rudd, who has acted in music videos and short films (and is unrelated to Paul Rudd). And Peter Gadiot, star of Queen of the South and Yellowjackets, will play Shanks.

The show will also feature Taz Skylar as Sanji and Jacob Gibson as Usopp. Other actors and character roles include Len-Barry Simons as Chu; Vincent Regan as Garp; McKinley Belcher III as Arlong; the famous Jeff Ward (Agents of Shield, Brand New Cherry Flavor) as Buggy; notable trans actor Morgan Davies as Koby; Ilia Isorelys Paulino as Alvida; Aidan Scott as Helmeppo; and Jean Henry as Fullbody.

One Piece: Production & Release Date

Despite the ridiculous things that happen in One Piece, including the main character essentially being made out of rubber, it seems the showrunners have chosen to go with a physical set. A photo and short video were leaked from the set displaying Alvida’s ship “Miss Love Duck” actually being constructed. It was easy to identify this particular vessel due to the giant duck head leading the bow.

Filming is set to begin this summer with no confirmed release date. And despite the public’s general distaste for live-action adaptations of animes, it seems the production has pulled out all the stops to do this show justice. As they should, considering it’s one of the most popular animes of all time, and fans have a great respect for the series. If they don’t get this right, they could be playing with fire.