Netflix's One Piece live-action adaptation is now one step closer to reality. The show's official Twitter account just confirmed the existence of a script for episode one, titled "Romance Dawn."
Besides confirming the existence of a script, writers Steven Maeda and Matt Owens had some inspirational words to share as part of the tweet. “No matter how hard or how impossible it is, never lose sight of your goal. Don’t lose sight of your beliefs, no matter how difficult or impossible.”
One Piece's journey to becoming a Netflix show began way back in 2017 when creator Eiichiro Oda started searching for partners to turn the manga into a live-action show. Two years later, Owens signed on as writer, Maeda signed on as showrunner, and soon after that, Netflix announced picking up the show in January 2020.
After that, it's been a rollercoaster of reveals, from finding out that Tomorrow Studios will produce the show (the same folks who made Snowpierecer and are making the upcoming Cowboy Bebop live-action show) and that filming will take place in Cape Town, South Africa (with these images of the Going Merry).
Related: Bandai Namco Filed A Mysterious 'One Piece Odyssey' Trademark
What we don’t have is a cast. We still don’t know who will star in Netflix’s One Piece, but we do know that season one will span 10 episodes and “cover the recruitment of Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji and end with Luffy’s fight against Arlong,” according to What’s On Netflix. So we have at least six actors still to be introduced.
We also still don’t have a release window, but it would certainly be poetic for the Netflix show to release next summer to coincide with the manga’s 25th anniversary.
Meanwhile, Cowboy Bebop will for sure arrive later this fall and stars John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine. It also features original anime composer Yoko Kanno and even has Ein played by a real-life corgi.
We still don't know who will play Ed, the androgynous hacker that often paired with Ed as Cowboy Bebop’s comedy relief. Here’s hoping that Ed is still in the show and they didn’t just cut them out.
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