Netflix’s Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Co-Showrunner Declares He “Will Make This Show Until Netflix Says No More”, Confirms Season Two Writers Room “Is Up And Running”
Spencer Baculi
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In light of the break-out success of Netflix and Tomorrow Studios’ live-action One Piece adaptation, series co-showrunner Matt Owens is not only feeling good about its upcoming second season, but is also ready to dedicate himself to overseeing the Straw Hats’ adventures into the far future.
One Piece. Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Owen shared his optimism towards One Piece‘s future while giving a post-release interview to Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva.
Asked by Andreeva if he could share “where exactly are you in the writing process on Season 2?”, the showrunner revealed – contrary to series producer and Tomorrow Studios Marty Adelstein’s previous claim that they had “scripts ready” for a second season – that, “We did start our Season 2 writers room for a little bit before the strike. We didn’t get much further than starting to plan out what the season is going to be and got a couple of outlines done. But that’s as far as we got.”
One Piece. (L to R) Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, Emily Rudd as Nami, Taz Skylar as Sanji in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix © 2023
“So there are not actually any scripts for the season that are done,” he added. “It’s still going to take some time.”
Turning to his approach to the series’ writing process, Owens then explained, “And of course, now that the show has come out, there are things to look at and lessons to learn as we move forward. ”
“We’ve got some outlines, and we have a really solid plan that we had communication with [series creator Eiichiro] Oda about,” he recalled. “Part of my trip in April was to talk to him about some of the early ideas that we had, talking to him about things that I want to include to just make sure that our ideas are in line with what he thinks.”
A certain Logia-fruit wielding Marine sets his sights on Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) in One Piece Season 1 Episode 8 “The Worst in the East” (2023), Netflix
“One of the really fun aspects of this show to me is, the manga has been going on for so long, and sometimes Oda revisits previous places in time or reveals information about a certain character who was at an event or who has knowledge of something,” Owens further beamed. “And we get to take all of that and play with it in the present-day story for us.”
“Some fans might understand what are two things that I might be alluding to with a statement like that but that was also a part of my conversation with Oda in getting ready for Season 2,” he continued, “it’s like, ‘Hey, are you cool if we put this person here because it’s something that we know happens years later’? And he was like, yeah. He enjoys that too, he enjoys seeing the depth of knowledge and love for his source material and allowing us to tell the story in a way that looks slightly different on is still on the whole in line with his vision.”
The Straw Hats featured in the first season of Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ as featured on Oda Eiichiro’s color spread to One Piece Ch. 1088 “Final Lesson” (2023), Shueisha
“That communication has been open and we’ve gotten some insight from him, we’ve gotten some things approved, and we had started our process,” said the showrunner. “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.”
Making note of Owens’ last statement, Andreeva pressed as to whether or not the One Piece writers room was back-to-work now that the Writers Guild of America strike had come to a close.
In turn, the showrunner confirmed, “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. Steven Ward as Mihawk in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Following a brief discussion on the massively positive fan-reception to Jeff Ward’s portrayal of Buggy the Clown, Andreeva then asked Owens if he had “a goal of how many seasons you’d like this to go”, to which he confidently asserted. “I do. I want to go as long as we can.”
“There’s a lot of source material,” noted the showrunner. “And while I do — just because I’m so obsessive not just with One Piece but planning in general — I do have ideas of what future seasons can be, what will be included in them, how we can, on a macro level, structure some things just because of the wealth of material that we have.”
“I will make this show until Netflix says no more,” he concluded.
One Piece. Jeff Ward as Buggy The Clown in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
With roughly 993 chapters and counting left to adapt, Owens certainly has his work cut out for him.
However, should Netflix and Tomorrow Studios continue to treat the series with as much care and respect as they did in Season One, it’s not out of the question that even if it doesn’t adapt everything, the live-action One Piece could still have a significantly long-life ahead of it.
One Piece. (L to R) Peter Gadiot as Shanks, Steven Ward as Mihawk in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix © 2023
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