Popular manga and anime series One Piece will be making its way to Netflix as a live-action show. This came to light when the series’ author Eiichiro Oda officially announced its production in Twitter on 30 January 2020.
Oda originally announced the project back in 2017, but its progress remained quiet until now. He stated that preparations were progressing slowly since then, and had only received an approval from Netflix just recently. The author also suggested that the show might have more than one season.
@NetflixJP @onepiecenetflix @NetflixJP_Anime pic.twitter.com/uTk7aN6NMU
— ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) January 30, 2020
For the uninitiated, One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his trusty band of pirates in his quest to obtain the world’s ultimate treasure and become the next Pirate King. The series’ original manga debuted in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine back in 1997, and first premiered as an anime by Toei Animation in 1999.
Ever since then, One Piece’s manga and anime have exceeded over 900 chapters and episodes, and are still currently ongoing. It’s also worth noting that the manga currently holds a Guinness World Record for the most copies ever published.
Deadline reports that the Netflix adaptation is helmed by veterans Steven Maeda (Lost, The X-Files) and Matt Owens (Agents of SHIELD, Luke Cage). Tomorrow Studios’ Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements (Cowboy Bebop, Snowpiercer, Hanna) as well as Eiichiro Oda himself are also on-board as executive producers for the show.
According to Oda, the show has not begun casting actors for its characters just yet. In terms of getting One Piece’s characters right, perhaps they could learn a thing or two from Indeed Japan’s 2019 TV commercials. Honestly, the ad was the closest we can get to an actual live-action adaptation. Trust us, just watch the video below.
Okay. Maybe not their version of Chopper…
The author added that the Netflix live-action adaptation of One Piece is planned for 10 episodes in its initial season. However, the show’s release date on the streaming service has not been revealed yet at this time.
(Source: Eiichiro Oda via Deadline | Images: Shueisha.)
