'One Piece' Showrunner Provides Big Season Two Updates

Matt Owens, the showrunner for Netflix‘s live-action One Piece, dropped some major season two updates in a recent Deadline interview.

The exec confirmed that they are back to writing the upcoming season as the WGA strike came to an end, and that they currently have some outlines and “a really solid plan” that the team had shared to Eiichiro Oda, the creator of the One Piece manga. “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,” Owens revealed. “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.”

Fans can expect “challenge and leadership” to be a big theme for season two, “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.” As they look towards the show’s future, he touched on the ending which teased the arrival of Captain Smoker, who he describes as a “very driven marine as a major antagonist,” adding “While Garp may have been the Marine who was testing Luffy, not every Marine is going to give him any leeway because of who his grandfather might be.”

Owens also dived into the possible casting of Jamie Lee Curtis, who is a One Piece fan and very openly talked about how badly she wants to be cast as Doctor Kureha — a character he describes as “perfect” for the actress. He shared that the writers room sent Curtis a figure of Doctor Kureha to celebrate her Oscar win, writing on the note, “Congratulations on your statue, here’s another one to put next to it. Hope to speak to you soon.” There is no real progress made so far as the SAG is still striking, but when it ends, Owen promised to have a nice dinner with the actress and talk about the role as they “really want her to come and play with us in Season 2.”

Stay tuned for more info on One Piece season two.

Elsewhere in entertainment, The Umbrella Academy will release its final season in 2024.