The first season of Netflix’s live-action “One Piece” comes to a close with a mid-credits stinger appearing to introduce an iconic villain from the manga.
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “ONE-PIECE”
The series is set in a seafaring world where a young pirate captain sets out with his crew to attain the title of Pirate King and to discover the mythical treasure known as the ‘One Piece’.
Boasting white hair and always smoking two cigars at once, Smoker is a G-5 Marine base commander also known as Smoker the White Hunter.
During an interview with Variety, live-action co-showrunner Steven Maeda says he didn’t want to give anything away about what’s to come with the second season:
“I don’t want to confirm or deny at this point. But it’s a good mystery, I think, and should have people guessing and wondering what’s going on.”
As the manga runs over 1,000 chapters, there’s plenty of material to get through, with the first season roughly covering the first 100 chapters.
Even so, the series moves around some elements, including moving up the presence of Vice-Admiral Garp (Vincent Regan), who doesn’t really come back into play in the manga until later on but is included here. Maeda explains that decision:
“One of the decisions that I made early on was wanting to have an antagonist in pursuit. And Garp seemed to lend himself so well to the idea of pursuers coming after Luffy and company. It was a change we made in order to keep the jeopardy up and to feel like there were big stakes.”
Part of the reason the show has been a success where other anime-to-live-action adaptations have failed is the tone – which retains a surreal and almost cartoon-like fantasy element that’s both accessible to newcomers whilst also respecting fans. Maeda tells Collider:
“I think, the thing that a lot of people are commenting on today, is the tone of the show because it’s unapologetically out there, surreal. It can be very silly, but at the same time, it’s very sincere and genuine, and emotional. So, a lot of it was kind of balancing that tone and trying to make sure that it felt like something people could grab onto.
And then I would say the biggest problem, probably, was figuring out the balance between how much to stick to the source material, to the manga, and really do fan service for the hardcore fans who were so, so dedicated to the show and so protective.”
The cast includes Inaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, Taz Skylar as Sanji, Vincent Regan as Monkey D. Garp, Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown, and Morgan Davies as Koby.
The first season of “One Piece” is now available in full on Netflix.
