Netflix’s One Piece co-showrunner breaks silence on Season 2

❘ Published: 2023-10-05T11:50:46

Netflix

A few weeks after the official announcement of Netflix’s One Piece Season 2, co-showrunner Matt Owens has shared the first updates about the upcoming episodes.

Netflix’s most successful live-action adaptation series, One Piece, is all set for its sequel. The second season is currently under production. It was renewed two weeks after the series debuted and created quite a buzz on the internet.

Season 2 was announced with Eiichiro Oda’s video message, thanking global fans for their support. Oda also teased Chopper’s introduction, which more or less confirms that Season 2 will adapt the Arabasta Saga. The Saga follows Luffy and his crew all the way to the Grand Line, with more dangerous enemies.

Because of the WGA strike that lasted for a few weeks, there have been no updates about the series since then. Now that it’s finally, Netflix’s One Piece co-showrunner shares the first updates about Season 2.

Netflix’s One Piece co-showrunner Matt Owens shares the theme of Season 2

In an interview with Deadline, Matt Owens was asked about the overarching themes of Season 2. He said: “Without saying too much and speaking to any new characters that we might meet, I would say a major theme that we’re working with in Season 2 is the challenge of leadership. From Luffy’s perspective, he’s got his crew now, and they are setting out to the Grand Line.

“They’re doing the thing, and there are a lot of challenges that come with that responsibility. And that theme ties into some other stories and characters that I won’t give away just yet. But the challenge and leadership is a big theme for us in Season 2.”

The new cast of One Piece Season 2 has yet to be finalized

In the same interview, Matt Owens also shared, “No one’s been cast yet not only because of both strikes going on but we were still early in the process; we weren’t beyond talking about potential, digging into the characters, talking about who they are, maybe coming up with a couple of comps. But no, we had not gotten into any actual casting yet for Season 2.”

He further shared his thoughts on casting Jamie Lee Curtis as Kureha. “We have opportunities to stunt cast some roles, some rules that are very important, and it came out that Jamie Lee Curtis is a One Piece fan,” he continued.

“As soon as she said that, we were like, okay, we have to try and get her on the show. What can we do? And Doctor Kureha, very luckily, is a character who is coming up in our story and is someone who is perfect for Jamie Lee Curtis.

“So we tried to start manifesting this dream of ours. After she won her Oscar, the writers’ room sent her a figure of Doctor Kureha with a nice note that said, Congratulations on your statue; here’s another one to put next to it. Hope to speak to you soon.

“When she reposted that, it got a lot of fan interest, and I commented on it. We’re trying to manifest it. Yes, as of right now, SAG is still striking, so there have not been real conversations. But as soon as there can be, I’m ready. I will take her out to dinner; we’ll talk about it. We’ll do all of it because, at this point, we’re writing for her — we really, really want her to come and play with us in Season 2.”

How far has the One Piece Season 2 script progressed?

One Piece live-action Luffy's wanted poster

It seems there’s still a way to go before the scripts are ready and finalized. Matt Owens also shares the status of One Piece Season 2 scripts. “We did start our Season 2 writers room for a little bit before the strike,” he explained.

“We didn’t get much further than starting to plan out what the season was going to be and got a couple of outlines done. But that’s as far as we got. So, there are not actually any scripts for the season that are done. It’s still going to take some time.”

“We are now back up and running as of this week, and we’re going to try and take the appropriate time that we need to get it right, but we’re going to try and get stuff up and running again as soon as possible. The writers’ room is up and running, yes, getting scripts done so that we can get into design work, scheduling, and pre-production, all of that kind of stuff.”

One Piece live-action is currently streaming on Netflix, and the anime is available on Crunchyroll.

How to watch Crunchyroll from outside your location in 2023

Crunchyroll is the world’s best hub for streaming anime, whether it’s One Piece, Attack on Titan, or Jujutsu Kaisen – and thanks to ExpressVPN, you can access the platform’s full library even if you’re outside the US.

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See our other One Piece coverage below, and you can check out our other anime coverage here.

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