One Piece is a fantasy adventure streaming television series developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda for Netflix. The series is a live action adaptation of the ongoing 1997 Japanese manga series of the same name by Eiichiro Oda. It is produced by Kaji Productions, Tomorrow Studios and Shueisha (who also publish the manga). The series features an ensemble cast including Iñaki Godoy, Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero Gibson, and Taz Skylar. 

The series premiered on August 31, 2023, and received positive reviews from critics and fans alike, who praised the performances, story, visual effects, and general faithfulness to story events from the source material.

Premise 
The series follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates, as they explore the dangerous oceans, lands and beyond in search of the "One Piece", a fabled treasure that will make their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, "King of the Pirates". But the Marines are on their ship's tail and they are not the only crew searching for the One Piece. Armed with skills and unbreakable friendship, the Straw Hats are ready for the journey and even more ready to fight for their dreams together.

Cast and characters

Main 
 Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, an enthusiastic prospective pirate both cursed and gifted with powerful rubber-like abilities from accidentally eating a mysterious Devil Fruit. His goal is to travel out of the East Blue with a crew of his own, find the mythical "One Piece" and become the King of the Pirates. 
 Colton Osorio as young Monkey D. Luffy
 Emily Rudd as Nami, an enigmatic thief who hides her past behind an aggressive indifference in search of a map to the Grand Line, where the One Piece is strongly rumored to be located. She's taken it upon herself to navigate and map out the entire world.
 Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, an accomplished master swordsman and bounty hunter, who uses the art of "Three Swords Style". He aims to become the world's greatest swordsman.
 Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, a boisterous, yet noble to a fault for his friends and allies; Usopp specializes in marksmanship, cunning and invention. He intends to be a brave, famous warrior of the sea recognized by his infamous pirate father Yasopp.
 Taz Skylar as Sanji, an abrasive, woman-loving, yet charming master chef who is a practitioner of martial arts primarily using his legs taught to him by his mentor and head chef Zeff. His purpose is to find the All Blue, a mythical sea that connects the four seas together and provide quality meals to all.
 Vincent Regan as Monkey D. Garp, a prolific Vice Admiral in the Marines and Luffy's grandfather, who becomes Koby's mentor.
 Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown, the clown-themed captain of the Buggy Pirates whose Devil Fruit he ate gives him the ability to split his own body into pieces and control them as he sees fit. 
 Morgan Davies as Koby, a cabin boy of the Alvida Pirates who dreams of joining the Marines.

Recurring 
 Aidan Scott as Helmeppo, the son of Captain Morgan and who uses his father's status as a Marine Captain to bully others into doing his bidding. He later becomes a marine cadet after the defeat of his father.
 Peter Gadiot as "Red-Haired" Shanks, the captain of the Red-Haired Pirates who was Luffy's childhood hero and inspiration to start his own crew.
 Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Alvida, the ruthless leader of the Alvida Pirates who fights with a large spiked iron club.
 Langley Kirkwood as "Axe-Hand" Morgan, a corrupt self-obsessed Marine Captain who imprisoned Zoro, and the father of Helmeppo.
 Armand Aucamp as Bogard, a Marine official and Garp's right-hand man.
 Celeste Loots as Kaya, an orphaned heiress and Usopp's close friend.
 Alexander Maniatis as Klahadore, one of Kaya's butlers.
 Bianca Oosthuizen as Sham, an officer of the Black Cat Pirates and Buchi's partner.
 Albert Pretorius as Buchi, an officer of the Black Cat Pirates and Sham's partner.
 Chanté Grainger as Banchina, Usopp's mother and Yasopp's wife.
 Craig Fairbrass as Chef Zeff, a former pirate and the current head chef and owner of Baratie, a floating restaurant, and Sanji's father figure.
 Milton Schorr as Don Krieg, a pirate well known for his underhanded tactics.
 Steven Ward as Dracule "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk, a pirate regarded as the world's greatest swordsman and is one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
 McKinley Belcher III as Arlong, a strong, ruthless fishman who is the leader of the Arlong Pirates and ruler of Arlong Park.
 Chioma Umeala as Nojiko, Nami's adoptive older sister
 Grant Ross as Genzo, the sheriff of the Coco Village, and Nami's father figure.
 Tamer Burjaq as Higuma, a sinister mountain bandit who tried to kill Luffy in his youth.
 Len-Barry Simons as Chu, a fish-man who is an officer of the Arlong Pirates and a former member of the Sun Pirates.
 Stevel Marc as Yasopp, an officer of the Red Hair Pirates and Usopp's father.
 Jandre le Roux as Kuroobi, an officer of the Arlong Pirates.
 Michael Dorman as Gold Roger, the former King of the Pirates.
Additionally, Ian McShane voices the narrator.

Episodes

Production

Development 
In July 2017, Weekly Shōnen Jump editor-in-chief Hiroyuki Nakano announced that Tomorrow Studios (a partnership between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios) and Shueisha would commence production of an American live-action television adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga series as part of the series' 20th anniversary celebrations. Oda will serve as executive producer for the series alongside Tomorrow Studios CEO Adelstein and Becky Clements. The series will reportedly begin with the East Blue saga. Adelstein also said the production cost could set new records.

In January 2020, Oda revealed that Netflix ordered a first season consisting of ten episodes. In May 2020, producer Marty Adelstein revealed during an interview with Syfy Wire that the series was originally set to begin filming in Cape Town at Cape Town Film Studios sometime around August but had been delayed to around September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also revealed that, during the same interview, all ten scripts had been written for the series and they were set to begin casting sometime in June. However, executive producer and writer Matt Owens stated in September 2020 that casting had not yet commenced.

In March 2021, production started up again with showrunner Steven Maeda revealing that the series codename is Project Roger. In September 2021, the series revealed its first look at the logo for the series. That same month, it was reported that Marc Jobst will direct the pilot episode of the series; he was approached to direct the pilot by Netflix executives due to their positive relationship after Jobst helmed episodes for Netflix series such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, and The Witcher. Jobst agreed to work on One Piece due to the script's optimistic tone. In February 2022, it was announced that Arisu Kashiwagi will be the creative director and designer for the show's brand identity, where she will be creating and designing logo and title sequence etc. In March 2022, alongside the release of additional casting announcements, it was said that head writer and executive producer Matt Owens would serve as co-showrunner alongside Maeda. In June 2022, Emma Sullivan was revealed to have directed episodes of the series.

Casting 
In November 2021, the main cast portraying the Straw Hat Pirates was revealed via a series of wanted posters: Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanji.

In March 2022, Netflix added Morgan Davies as Koby, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Alvida, Aidan Scott as Helmeppo, Jeff Ward as Buggy, McKinley Belcher III as Arlong, Vincent Regan as Garp and Peter Gadiot as Shanks to the cast in recurring roles.

June 2022 saw the addition of Langley Kirkwood as Captain Morgan, Celeste Loots as Kaya, Alexander Maniatis as Klahadore, Craig Fairbrass as Zeff, Steven Ward as Dracule Mihawk, and Chioma Umeala as Nojiko. In August 2022, Bianca Oosthuizen, Chanté Grainger, and Grant Ross joined the cast of the series, playing Sham, Banchina, and Genzo respectively.

In February 2023, it was revealed that Stevel Marc had been cast as Yasopp. In March 2023, it was revealed that Jandre le Roux had been cast as Kuroobi.

In July 2023, it was revealed that the original Japanese voice actors from the One Piece anime will voice the characters for the Japanese dub. All the characters are dubbed by the original Japanese voice cast, with the exception of Arlong being voiced by Hiroki Tōchi, replacing Jūrōta Kosugi from the anime for unspecified reasons.

Design 
Richard Bridgland serves as the production designer, while Diana Cilliers serves as the costume designer.

Filming 
Maeda officially announced that principal photography had begun on January 31, 2022, and finished filming on August 22, 2022. In May 2022, director Marc Jobst updated that he had finished filming the first two episodes of the show. Part of the filming took place in Cape Town, South Africa, at Cape Town Film Studios. Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, the show's cinematographer, said that she had her crew six weeks before production began.

Music 
Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli were hired to compose the score for the series. The first song from the series' soundtrack, "Wealth Fame Power", was made available on music streaming platforms on August 18, 2023. The second song, "My Sails Are Set", featuring Norwegian singer Aurora, was released on August 25.

Post-production 
Eric Litman, Tessa Verfus, Kevin D. Ross, and Tirsa Hackshaw serve as editors on the series.

Marketing 
On June 17, 2023, the series' premiere date and official teaser trailer were revealed by the main cast in-person during the fourth edition of Tudum at Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, Brazil. The entire presentation was broadcast live from the Ibirapuera Auditorium on several Netflix official YouTube channels. The three-day event was held between June 16 and 18 and contained a One Piece-themed interactive activation, which featured a life-size replica of the Going Merry at the Bienal pavillion located inside the park.

On June 29, 2023, a promotional website for the series was launched. Billed as the "Straw Hat Grand Fleet", the website features behind-the-scenes content as well as a section for creating custom wanted posters.

On July 21, 2023, Netflix released the official trailer and a personalized letter from Oda.

On August 10, 2023, Netflix announced dates and locations for global fan celebrations ahead of the series premiere. Marketed as "Straw Hats Unite Across The Globe", the schedule of events included screenings of the first episode on August 24 in Santa Monica, California at the Santa Monica Pier. Other cities and dates where in-person fan celebrations were be held included Paris, on August 29; Jakarta, Tokyo, Milan and Manila, on August 30; and Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Bangkok, on August 31. Germany was also set to hold a fan event on the premiere day, albeit virtually. Among the attractions announced for the global celebrations is a life-size replica of the Going Merry to be on display on Copacabana Beach from August 31 to September 10.

On August 30, 2023, Netflix released a final trailer for the series.

Reception 
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 80% of 35 critics gave the series a positive review, with an average rating of 7.4/10. Its critics' consensus states: "One Piece captures the essence of its beloved source material with a charmingly big-hearted adaptation that should entertain longtime fans as well as patient newcomers."  On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

See also 
 List of One Piece media

References

External links 
 
 

2020s American comedy-drama television series
2023 American television series debuts 
English-language Netflix original programming
One Piece mass media
Television shows based on manga
Television shows filmed in South Africa
Television series about pirates
Television series by ITV Studios
Television series set in fictional countries
Television series set on fictional islands
2023 American television series debuts