 Season two of the One Piece live action is coming, and executives are saying it could even be ready as early as in 12 months time. Whatever your personal thoughts on the One Piece adaptation, it's hard to deny that the live action has been a massive success. Trending number one all over the world with everyone from your mom, your girlfriend, or your wife to even your neighbor's dog watching the series. This massive success has no doubt been recognized by Netflix where co-CEO Greg Peters has said that despite the high bar in taking a manga and delivering it in English in live action form, this has been massively popular and a success around the world. And the live action executive producers have expressed very high optimism about future seasons. Marty Alderstein claiming that the series has exceeded expectations and that they expect to be hearing from Netflix either next week or in the next two weeks to come up with a long term strategy, which in reality means that season two hasn't actually been confirmed, but it's seeming very likely and the live action producers are simply waiting for Netflix to give the go ahead, which they are expecting given the show's huge success. Another executive producer, Becky Clement, shared that they even have the scripts for season two already ready. A realistic forecast is that a season two could be ready as early as 12 to 18 months, which theoretically could mean that we could get season two as early as 2024. But the caveat is that this forecast is 12 to 18 months following the conclusion of the writers and actors' strike which admittedly doesn't look like it would be ending very soon, but even still, to have this expectation of only 12 to 18 months to complete season two is insane. To put it into context, Jewishia announced the plans to produce a live-action adaptation of One Piece all the way back in 2017. In 2020, Oda revealed that Netflix ordered a first season of 10 episodes and in May of that same year, the producers shared that the script's already and that they would commence casting shortly. Production started up again in March 2021 following delays due to COVID and according to showrunner Steve Mayoda, filming began in January 31st of 2022 and finished August 22nd of 2022. And it was over a year later that we finally saw the release of the live-action on Netflix on August 31 of 2023. So even without factoring the coronavirus, it took over 18 months for season one to be completed. And that's from when it first started filming. Never mind when it was actually written or announced, but it is understandable that given that it was the first season, I'm sure a lot of more things had to be worked out, things like set building, casting, costuming, so on and so forth. Whereas for season two, they do now have the experience and the know-how to pull it off perhaps much, much faster. Although in saying that, it's crazy when you consider the level of set design and the further casting and costuming and all that's required to pull off season two because I would imagine that season two would start with Logetown and end with the other Buster arc. That seems to be the logical sequence, especially because season one ended with the tease of Smokeo. And they were very clearly hinting at Baroque works throughout season one. I mean, hell, Crocodile even has an immediate reason to go after the Straw Hats, given that Zoro straight up killed Mr. Seven and declined his invitation to join Baroque works. And so when you consider it that way, that's a massive season two. Logetown, Reverse Mountain, Whiskey Peak, Little Garden, Drum Island, and Atta Buster. And Atta Buster alone is the first mega arc that we witnessed in the series. So either season two will have to be a lot longer than eight episodes, or they won't finish the season at Atta Buster, both of which I find to be highly unlikely, or that they're going to have to majorly condense each of the arcs, potentially even cut out some of the arcs altogether. And if season one is anything to go by, then it's most likely the latter that they're going to condense or even cut out some of the arcs. But we're gonna get into all of that shortly because first of all, what I really want to say is that I am really hoping that this does in fact get confirmed. And we do get a season two because it's in this next saga that we really see such huge expansion of one piece as we enter the grand line. The lore, the mysteries, the world building, they all just get further developed at such a huge scale. It's in Drum Island that we're introduced to the mystery of the Wheel of D with Goldie Rogers' real name being revealed. We see sea stones with smoke up, further expanding the lore behind the devil fruits. And this idea of different islands having different climates, sometimes being stuck in different historical time periods. They're all such fascinating elements that massively expands the world of one piece, which is a huge part of what makes one piece such a great story. It's also the arc where we have a number of pivotal characters, characters who will continue to be important for the rest of the story being introduced. So firstly, the mid-credits scene already showed that Smokeo will be coming in season two and he is quite fixated on Luffy. And according to an interview with Steve Mayardot, the initial plan was to actually include the low-town arc in the first season. But due to the budget and time restraints, this just wasn't possible. This has set us up nicely for season two in that after being thwarted at low-town in the first episode, Smokeo will likely be hell-bent on capturing Luffy throughout the rest of the season, showing up again in later episodes and almost definitely in Arta Basta. So I imagine that Smokeo will play a pretty similar role to what Garp did throughout season one and that Smokeo will be that plotline B or that parallel journey to Luffy's. And this would actually make much more sense and be closer to the original story than what we had with Garp's involvement throughout season one. While we did see Smokeo's back being teased at the end of season one, as well as his younger version during Rodgers' execution, it hasn't been revealed as to who has been casted to play this role or if they have even casted someone as of yet. On the other hand, we do know that the role of Dragon has already been casted. Dean DeMonts, whom I understand is South African, but correct me if I'm wrong, and Dean has been announced to be playing Dragon. Although this announcement was made prior to the release of season one, so I'm not sure if he was just the stand-in for the cloaked figure that we saw at Rodgers' execution or whether he'll continue to play the role of Luffy's father for season two. And the crazy theorist in me can't help but consider the implications about the fact that in the live action, Garp is Irish, Dragon is South African, and Luffy is Mexican. For the longest time, fans have been speculating that Dragon isn't Garp's biological son, which now seems to be more or less put to rest, but that's another story. Do the showrunners know something that fans don't yet? Taz Oda has filled some juicy secrets about Luffy's heritage. I am just joking, although it is entirely possible. But it's much more likely that they have just casted actors. They believe to be fitting for the role, although I will personally say that Dean seems to be quite young compared to Dragon, who in present time is 53 years old. Hence why I suggested that he may have only been cast to play the younger version at the execution. But they may also just rely on makeup and effects to age him in the live action, because in season one, mehawk also looked younger than his age in the series, so it may just not be a big problem for them. Something that I am very interested about Dragon is how they're going to demonstrate his powers. In the original series, Dragon's powers are still yet to be confirmed, but it's been heavily hinted that he may control the wind or have some sort of abilities to that effect, possibly a devil fruit. And after discussing the live action with my Blue Banana colleagues, apparently some newcomers who only experienced the live action thought that Shang's was actually a devil fruit user after that scene with the Lord of the Coast, which is perfectly understandable because Haki wouldn't even exist to new fans at this stage. But I do wonder how obvious or how strongly will they hint at Dragon's potential powers in the live action? For example, will they strongly suggest that Dragon 2 is a devil fruit user? In general, I'm very excited about the number of devil fruit users that they will have to cover in season two, starting with Smokeo, which I think might be the easiest to achieve with special effects, but Crocodile's sand ability, Mr. 3's candle body, and even Alvida's new devil fruit. So from what I know, they won't be forcing Ilya Izraelis, who played Alvida in season one, to lose weight for season two, and thank God for that. But I also highly doubt that they would be recasting her, especially because we saw her team up with Buggy at the end of season one, and if we go by the original series, by that point, Alvida already had her devil fruit. So potentially, they could cut out her devil fruit entirely for the live action because it doesn't continue to be as a massive part of the story going forward, or maybe they just use other special effects to achieve that smooth, smooth body. I do wonder how they'll handle other characters, particularly characters like Chopper, for example. Will they go the Marvel route and use CGI to create a rocket-like Chopper, similar to how it's been handled for the Guardians of the Galaxy Raccoon? Will it be like Pikachu from the live-action movie Detective Pikachu? Or will they just cast a human and give him reindeer ears? And maybe some other prosthetics, similar to how they dealt with the fishmen? I have a similar question about Karu, because something I noticed about season one was that they basically cut out Hachan, or significantly changed his character, which had to be done because Hachan was just too hard to achieve. And fair enough. Now, in season one, we did get news crew, but given that was only for a very short scene, whereas Karu becomes essentially almost an honorary straw hat alongside Vivi, will they really commit to his character all throughout season two? And personally, I hope they do, because he is an important character for the Arabastha saga. But I also think it might be unlikely when we consider how they had to cut out Hachan because of its difficulty. In terms of other characters, this gets very exciting because there is a whole new pool of characters to cast for this season. Starting with honorary straw hat Vivi, which out of all the other characters might be easier to cast, Miss All Sunday might be a bit more challenging because they'd have to find someone able to play the duality of the Baroque Works vice president as well as the straw hat for the future. And along with Chopper, that's three new straw hats that we're seeing for the upcoming season. And I can't wait to see who they cast because I have to say that for the East Blue Five, I've definitely hit the nail on their head in terms of casting. Crocodile, I'm really excited. And apprehensive, because one of my critiques for season one was the lack of charm and charisma from Shanks. And crocodile as a character is as equally captivating, albeit in a diabolical way. And so I hope this is a case where they really do get casting of crocodile right. I mean, there's a reason why 20 years later and many antagonists later, crocodile still remains our favorite or at least one of our favorite villains for many One Piece fans. Someone I'd love to see join the One Piece cast would be Jamie Lee Curtis for Dr. Kureha because this Hollywood actor is a well-known One Piece fan who has verbally expressed that she would like to play the 141-year-old witch doctor. And I genuinely can see Jamie Lee Curtis in that role. She definitely has that perfect eccentric energy. And oh my God, who are they gonna cast for Bonchan? Provided that they don't cut him out. Ace should also be a part of this next season, which should be very exciting. And even more so if we consider that even Blackbeard might be cast. Because Drum Island is a part of the Arabasthasaga in the original series, we're introduced to the idea of Blackbeard, but don't actually see him. But there's no reason why they can't introduce us to him in season two for the live action, especially if they want to continue teasing us for upcoming seasons. And if the comments made by the executive producer is anything to go by, I not only think that season two is all but practically confirmed, but also season three and maybe even beyond. Because according to his words, Netflix is looking at the long-term strategy, which in my brain automatically means, Six seasons and a movie! But in all seriousness, season two is guaranteed to do well. Just because of the sheer hype that's been generated from season one, which should almost definitely mean that people are invested to see how season two will play out. And so season two should bring in the big bucks. And if they get season two right, then season three is almost also guaranteed. Meaning that Blackbeard will have to be cast sometime or another. But I may be being too optimistic because season two, like I said, already has so much to cover even without Blackbeard. And this is genuinely a concern and a source of intrigue for me. Like I said, the Arrabastha saga is huge. If we consider that they ended up canning Locetown because they couldn't fit it within the East Blue saga in the first season, what does this mean for including Locetown and the Arrabastha saga for season two? And so if we go by each arc, Locetown itself has pretty much been confirmed. And Steve did comment that this is regrettable, that they couldn't fit it in season one because the set building itself took a long time and was a very costly endeavor. But we have to get the parallels between Luffy's execution to Goldie Roger, especially after this idea of Luffy resembling the late Pirate King was already heavily mentioned throughout season one by Zeph and Mihawk. Dragon's introduction has to be there. And seeing as they've already showed us Buggy and Alveda teaming up, that's likely to remain in season two as well. And the Zoro plot is also likely to occur as well because he did lose two of his swords during his duel with Mihawk. And there is no way that they're skipping out on Zoro being a total badass and testing fate with the cursed Sundae Kitetsu. Reverse Mountain is also practically confirmed because at the end of season one, we saw Nami wondering about how the entrance to the Grand Line involves a mountain. And if they do plan on continuing the series for future seasons, then Lagbun is a must. But I do think that Reverse Mountain could be just one episode, maybe even only half an episode and they could just deal with Whiskey Peak in that same episode. Actually, if they must cut out an arc from this saga, then it's probably Whiskey Peak. I'm sure that they could manage to have the rest of the Baroque Works agent becoming involved either from Locetown or from other locations instead of having to dedicate an entire episode to Whiskey Peak, especially since Baroque Works has already been seated. Although I will miss some of the fun moments from Whiskey Peak, like that ridiculous tease of a fight between Luffy and Zoro or Nami holding her own while they were all drinking because it's all about the hustles. But so long as Vivi and Karu make their way to join the crew, it's fine. I definitely hope that Little Garden won't be cut out or that it won't be too condensed. Little Garden has so many really, really important moments that sets us up for the conflict with Crocodile and it's a really important arc for character development, especially for Usopp's sake. I hope this arc remains pretty faithful to the original. A major critique about season one was the overall lack of Usopp and Little Garden is a huge part of Usopp's character and the idea of him becoming a brave warrior of the sea. So please, if you're watching Netflix, do not cut that out. Little Garden also had some other really great moments like Sanji's suave, Mr. Prince. The rivalry between Zoro and Sanji came out on full display. And speaking of Zoro, it featured personally one of my favorite Zoro moments which was when he decided to go out looking cool when under threat of becoming a wax mod. And then the duality when he also showed his resolve to cut his own feet. But based on season one, they do seem to have cut out this goofier or dorkier side of Zoro. So we may not actually get to see that scene in season two. In fact, Little Garden in general might be a pretty hard arc for them. Given all that's involved with the prehistoric jungle, the animals and the giants, it's definitely going to be an expensive episode for sure. Drum Island is an arc that I do expect to be heavily condensed and again, might be harder for them to film because they'll have to incorporate all of these weather elements like the blizzard. But seeing as this is going to be the introduction to our next straw hat member in Chopper, again, I do hope that they stay pretty true to the manga because I noted in my review of season one that I wasn't a fan of how they cut out a lot of the scenes from the Boratie arc, especially those scenes of Sanji witnessing Zoro's duel with Mihawk or even his conversation and later his argument with Luffy and so on and so forth because it made Sanji's decision to join the straw hats a little more superficial, not as nuanced or just not quite as well-developed. So in the Drum Island arc, Chopper feeling like he can trust humans is such an important thing and we need the accompanying scenes and backstory to make his relationship with Luffy land. In general, Chopper has one of the best backstories out there and Hero Look has one of the best lines in the entire series. So I hope all of that is done justice because I can't necessarily say the same for all of the backstories in season one, like Usabs, maybe even Zoro, maybe even Luffy. I'm also looking forward to the gag with Luffy and Sanji chasing Chopper as a source of meat upon their first introduction because that was freaking hilarious. And once again, these cast Jamie Lee Curtis for Dr. Kuroha. Now, Ata Basta itself is a mammoth arc. So I really do wonder what they're going to cut out to make this achievable. I know I mentioned him earlier, but I actually do suspect that the entire ace subplot might be cut out and Luffy's time with Toto maybe condensed. The entire civil revolutionary angle might be simplified. I really hope that we do still get to see all the one-on-one fights for all the straw hats because those were just such iconic moments that really further develop the characters. Again, Usabs' bluff being a source of comedy, but also bravery, Sanji hilarious against Mr. Two, Nami holding her own, although the live-action Nami is already much more badass. And as for Zoro, his fight with Mr. One actually might've been the first time that we saw Zoro use Arman Haki long before we knew what that actually was and all in all, that was just a magnificent battle and they have to show all three fights between Luffy and Crocodile because this was the first time we truly saw Luffy well and truly struggle and the first time we were made to worry about Luffy's fate. Although this has already been changed in the live-action because Luffy has in general been struggling a lot more against his opponents, but still. And most of all, that farewell scene between Vivi and the straw hats is such an iconic moment and I'm sure that they will include it, but it really is a matter of making sure that it's delivered right and captured to serve us the emotions that it did in the original series. So all in all, I do definitely think the showrunners, the producers, they have their work cut out for them and the more I think about it, 12 to 18 months is actually an incredibly ambitious timeline. But hey, if they can do it, then by all means, go for it. As long as they don't change the ingredients that really worked well in season one, the first of which being the spectacular set building. They've mentioned that rather than relying on visual effects and CGI too much, they took the effort to physically build out the sets and I have to say that really paid off for season one. It was personally one of my favorite parts of the adaptation, particularly the level of detail in all of the ships. And so there's plenty of more extravagant sets that I'm looking forward to for season two, including seeing more of L'Octahal as well as all the different environments between the different islands. But most of all, the Alubana Palace and the exotic landscape of Atta Basta in general. And on that note, can you just imagine the costumes for the Atta Basta art and another really important ingredient being music and sound design. Sonia Belovosa and Giorna Ostinelli, who composed the soundtrack for season one, did a phenomenal job and I seriously can't praise it enough. So I hope that they've been retained for season two because the underscores played such a big role in what made the live action so immersing. And now I'm sure that there is plenty more to say, but if you haven't been able to tell already, I am rapidly losing my voice. So let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Please do like and subscribe. I mean, come on, you have to recognize my efforts and my commitment here. But in all seriousness, thank you for listening to another one of my rambling. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.