With the second season of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece on the horizon, fans can’t help but wonder about the future of the series. The success of the first season broke new ground in terms of what was possible for anime adaptations, and there’s even a chance that One Piece will become Netflix’s new flagship show. But it’s important that the company doesn’t forget what the story is all about, at its core.
One Piece is a series nearly thirty years in the making. The first chapter of the original manga, written by Eiichiro Oda, was published in 1997. With over 1,100 chapters as of 2026, the story still has yet to conclude. So what makes it so special? And how can the live-action version possibly plan to tackle something of this scale?
The global phenomenon
At first glance, One Piece is a pretty simple story. Set in a fantastical “Great Pirate Era,” it follows teen protagonist Monkey D. Luffy as he seeks to find the One Piece, a legendary treasure that will make him the King of Pirates.
However, the series wouldn’t have become so popular and globally-renowned if that was all there was to it.
One Piece’s author, Eiichiro Oda, has a unique ability to craft a fictional world that feels truly lived-in and characters you can’t help but root for. His writing often foreshadows events that happen hundreds of chapters/episodes later, and side characters regularly resurface, their own stories never forgotten.
That’s not to say that One Piece is a flawless series. There are certainly a few criticisms that can be leveled at it. Its portrayal of female characters, for example, is not great at times. However, the sheer depth of the story and its simple (but unwavering) themes of friendship, resisting injustice, and fighting to achieve one’s dreams carry it to the level of a modern masterpiece.
Well, maybe.
The manga and anime are still ongoing, and some fans are skeptical about whether or not Oda will be able to stick the landing and give the protagonists the conclusions they deserve after 30+ years.
Regardless, One Piece is the best-selling manga series of all time, and is even on track to eventually surpass Harry Potter as the best-selling book series of all time. Its cultural impact is undeniable — from statues commemorating the characters to Olympic athletes mimicking poses from the show.
Last year, the flag of Monkey D. Luffy’s crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, became a protest symbol in Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and even the United States. It’s a real-life manifestation of the series’ stance against injustice and corruption.
A live-action adaptation that breaks the curse
Historically, live-action adaptations of popular anime series are doomed to fail.
In 2017, Netflix tried its hand at adapting the story of Death Note, a widely beloved anime and manga, into a feature-length film. The film was not well received by Death Note fans nor by newcomers to the series. Common criticisms cite a fundamental misunderstanding of what made the original characters and plot compelling.
Similarly, Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop (2021) felt like “a slap in the face” to the source material.
In 2024, the live-action curse struck again with Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix’s adaptation of the American cartoon of the same name. Netflix’s Avatar lost fans by taking itself too seriously, whereas the original show was light and fun, with moments of seriousness at the right times.
Considering all this, it seems improbable that Netflix could suddenly strike gold with One Piece in 2023. Of course, it’s not like the same team of creatives works on all of these projects, but considering the streaming platform’s track record with live action, the One Piece adaptation was a surprising win for Netflix, as well as for fans.
The first season of One Piece (2023) received high ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Fans who had originally expected the series to be another bad decision by Netflix were suddenly praising its charm and humor. Even those who had never seen the anime were getting hooked in as well.
Netflix soon renewed One Piece for a second season, and last year, a third was confirmed.
A wacky world full of wacky characters
The story of One Piece is full of ridiculousness. This is one of the many reasons its live-action adaptation initially saw a lot of skepticism. The main character is made of rubber, after all. Did I mention that? Yeah, he ate a special fruit that turned his body into rubber. This sort of thing is very commonplace in Eiichiro Oda’s world.
Watching One Piece, anime or live action, is a huge exercise in suspending your disbelief. Anything can happen in this wacky world. You can’t be questioning it for even a second, or you won’t have any fun at all.
I mean, their phones are snails. In the One Piece world, instead of phones, they have snails. Why? How? Don’t think about it too much, or you might be really thrown off when the singing skeleton shows up a few hundred episodes later.
These weird elements seemed like they’d be the first on the chopping block during the adaptation process. And the more plot-crucial kookiness would definitely be easy to flatten out or change into something a little more serious and marketable.
But series creators Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, overseen by Oda himself, truly made very few compromises with their rendition of One Piece.
Cartoonish enough to work
Yes, there were a couple of visual omissions in this adaptation. Sorry to fans who desperately wanted to see Sanji’s curly eyebrows or Usopp’s impossibly long nose in live action. However, overall, character appearances were translated from 2D to 3D pretty faithfully.
The costume design of the live-action show even perfectly replicates outfits from the anime and manga. The bright colors in these costumes seem like they’re coming straight out of an animation.
Netflix took a completely different direction in yet another of its poorly-reviewed adaptations: Fate: The Winx Saga (2021). This show sought to bring Winx Club, an adventure cartoon about fairies, to live action. Fate decided to ditch the cartoonish feel of the original Winx and create a more mature story. However, in the process, it became a basic teen drama with nothing to set it apart from similar shows.
One Piece, in firmly hanging on to these cartoonish aspects and maintaining its originality, masterfully avoided the fate of Fate.
Is One Piece Netflix’s next Stranger Things?
Now that Stranger Things and Squid Game are both over, Netflix will be on the lookout for its next “flagship” show. Something to keep the subscribers paying for a few more years.
And One Piece is an excellent candidate. Because of the sheer length of the manga and anime, there’s a lot of material for Netflix to work with. There’s already some speculation that One Piece will take Stranger Things’ place as Netflix’s biggest, most heavily marketed show. Plus, since the series has a built-in fanbase already, there’s no doubt that One Piece will always draw viewers.
But, with both of Netflix’s previous big successes in Squid Game and Stranger Things, there remained a sense among audiences that the company had carried the franchises on for far too long in order to capitalize on their initial popularity. Both shows were strongest in their first seasons, becoming more convoluted and bloated as time went on. So can One Piece avoid this curse?
Where Stranger Things went wrong (and where One Piece can go right)
The Stranger Things finale wasn’t horrible (in my humble opinion). Still, it did lack some of the whimsical charm of the first few seasons.
In the end, it felt more like a Marvel movie about a large ensemble cast saving the world than a nostalgic ’80s show about a nerdy friend group. Because the series ended up being so popular, the creators constantly had to raise the stakes to keep the plot going. It’s no secret that most of what happened in the later seasons of Stranger Things was unplanned.
One Piece already has the power to avoid this. It has years of mythology and character arcs set in stone (though no definitive ending yet). However, it has to maintain its charm to work. If Netflix ever decides to take One Piece in a grittier, more serious direction, that’s how we’ll know this adaptation is going downhill.
One Piece should never be Marvel-ized the way Stranger Things was. At the end of the day, the creators can’t be willing to sacrifice silliness for mass appeal.
The season 2 trailers: an optimistic look
The second season of live-action One Piece is coming out on March 10, 2026. Netflix has released several official trailers so far, and this season honestly looks like it’ll be just as enjoyable as season 1.
Iñaki Godoy continues to bring an incredible, larger-than-life energy to his portrayal of Luffy. Plus, it feels as though the creators put a lot of thought into the casting of new, pivotal characters. For example: Miss All Sunday (Lera Abova) and Miss Wednesday (Charithra Chandran).
This show has yet again surprised fans with the inclusion of many cartoonish details that seemed near-impossible to adapt. From Mr. 3’s ridiculous hairstyle to scenes featuring minor characters like the Unluckies (an otter and a vulture who work for a criminal organization), it appears that the live action is continuing to meet the absurd challenges of the source material head-on.
I personally couldn’t be more excited, and I hope this series will always work this hard to preserve its unique identity.
The uncertain future of One Piece Live Action
Unfortunately, there’s still an elephant in the room. Live-action One Piece will inevitably stray from its source. It has to, because it can’t possibly cover the entire story.
The first season came out in 2023. With the main cast already three years older by the release of the second, things aren’t looking good.
To put things into perspective a little more: the first season of Netflix’s One Piece covered about 45 episodes of the anime. The second season will probably bring us close to episode 100. That leaves 1,000+ more episodes to adapt. And while the manga is near its end, it might still take five or more years to fully conclude.
Some fans think the live-action series might (or should) choose a high point in the story to end on. The biggest probable contender for a live-action finale is the Enies Lobby arc (or episodes 264-312 of the anime). Without spoiling it, this arc has iconic character moments for many of the main cast and features a couple of big changes in the series’ status quo.
An Enies Lobby finale is definitely the outcome I’d be hoping for, but who knows… With season three already confirmed and rumors that the One Piece producers have an ambitious twelve-season plan, it might just be possible to see Iñaki Godoy’s Luffy find the One Piece one day.
