The much-anticipated series appears to have captured the spirit of the beloved anime.
The star of Netflix’s live-action One Piece has promised that the new adaptation “stays true” to the anime source material.
Although the full-length One Piece trailer released during the streamer’s TUDUM fan event looked very promising indeed, some fans are retaining their right to be sceptical.
After all, western attempts at remaking popular anime properties have typically ended in disaster, with Speed Racer, Ghost in the Shell, Death Note and Cowboy Bebop among the worst offenders.
There’s every chance, however, that One Piece could shatter the trend, with creator Eiichiro Oda heavily involved in the series and star Iñaki Godoy reiterating the crew’s commitment to honouring the original.
He told SFX Magazine (before the SAG-AFTRA strike): “We want to honour the work of Mr Oda and the whole history of One Piece. We respect it, we love it, we think it’s great. And the live action definitely stays true to the source material.
“The history of One Piece is great and more people should know about it, because it can inspire you to be the best version of yourself and to be more friendly and follow your dreams.”
Two specific elements that Netflix‘s One Piece team were “asked not to mess with” were the backstories of the Straw Hat pirates – the eccentric protagonists of the series – and the powers granted by the franchise’s mysterious devil fruits.
Oda is clearly happy with the results, penning an open letter to fans when the latest trailer dropped, assuring there had been “no compromises” in bringing the series to live-action.
Showrunner Matt Owens, who has previously worked on Marvel’s Luke Cage and Agents of SHIELD, told SFX that gaining the creator’s stamp of approval was a process.
“I’m not going to lie, he was tough in the beginning – this wasn’t the first attempt at a live-action One Piece, and we weren’t the first people to try to express it in a new way,” he explained.
“But I think once he realised we were coming from the right place – trying to protect this series and create a new avenue for even more people to fall in love with it – he started to trust us.”
One Piece also stars Mackenyu (Knights of the Zodiac) as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd (Fear Street) as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson (Greenleaf) as Usopp and Taz Skylar (The Lazarus Project) as Sanji.
One Piece is available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 31st August 2023. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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