One Piece Netflix Adaption Announces Their Cast!

By Miriam Herrera

 on November 11, 2021

Tuesday, news had just dropped that made the One Piece fandom rejoice and stun us all. As a member of this fandom and a very much self-proclaimed Pirate Queen, I had to put down my Animal Crossing for a bit to look over what had just exploded on Twitter yesterday evening. And while scrolling through Twitter and article after article of the news of Netflix and Eiichiro Oda announcing the cast for the new live-action One Piece show that has been making its rounds. And while it made its rounds on not only Twitter but Tiktok as well, the sounds of amazement and applauds for the cast have come through. The first person that I saw when opening Tiktok was @straw_hat_goofy making the announcement and making a little joke here and there. But with a name like his, we both knew we were very hyped for this announcement.

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPd21eX2V/

So who is this cast? And why is everyone is vibing with this cast? Well, I’m here to tell you exactly who they are and why this has caused my little Pirate heart to sing.

Let’s start with our one and only future Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy, he will be played by Mexican actor Inaki Godoy. He was in the Netflix series, ¿Quien Mato A Sara? (Who Killed Sara?) and La Querida del Centauro. While we dive deeper in, we could feel the energy that came off Inaki as he made his announcement video with the others. That same energy that matched our Captain. And I’m proud to say that I would follow him right to the New World if he asked me to. And the only other person that I will follow to the New World will be Luffy’s second in command, Roronoa Zoro. He will be played by Japanese actor Mackenyu, and this man has a long list of movies under his belt already. And two of them are in Pacific Rim: Uprising and Rurouni Kenshin: The Final. Now, as I said, I would follow Zoro through the ends of the earth, Mackenyu, I’m watching you! The acting that Mackenyu has portrayed with each role that he takes on has an amazing range. While others claim he is very much a “pretty boy” I do see him transforming himself into Zoro when the time comes just as he has done with each role he takes.

Now, don’t worry, I know you’ve been waiting for this one, our Cat Burglar, our lovely Navigator, and the only one that can beat up Zoro and Luffy, Nami! She will be played by American actress, Emily Rudd, you might know her from the Netflix series that came out early this year, Fear Street! She was also briefly on Dynasty, which I highly recommend watching because we all a bit for the drama. This talented actress has already paid homage to Nami when she appeared in the announcement video wearing a necklace with Nami’s name spelled out. That lovely touch to her character was everything for the fandom and made many of us smile. Next up is our sniper, God Usopp, who will be played by American actor, Jacob Romero Gibson, now when I saw him. I knew that there was a moment of realization of who he was. Being a fan of Grey’s Anatomy, I remember Jacob being one of the episodes and remember the performance that he gave us during that episode. It was an amazing one filled with emotion and such a heartbreaking speech. I can defiantly see him making those silly and serious moments for Usopp scene when it comes to it. That rawness that he will bring during his scenes will be something that I will be looking forward to.

And now, we have our favorite Chef, the man that makes us all hungry for his food, Sanji! He will be played by British actor, writer, director, and producer, Taz Skyler! While I will say that I haven’t seen much of his acting, I am having very much high hopes for him. The platinum hair is giving me vibes that once grown out and dyed blonde, it’ll be an amazing look. But what I cannot wait for is the curly eyebrow! I did fall in love with his smile while scrolling through his Instagram.

The cast is very much looking up and giving a lot of the fandom high hopes for what Netflix will do under the guidance of Eiichiro Oda. To see this take place, and while many are very cautious of what can happen. We are holding out until the final product comes out. As we have seen that the One Piece live-action will have ten episodes for their first season. While filing for One Piece was supposed to start last summer, but had to delay because of the pandemic, however, last month Steven Maeda posted a picture with the caption “arrival” in Cape Town. We have no release date yet for the live-action, and we can only hope that this could land in either the summer of 2022, however, this is only an assumption for now.

As you can see the wide diversity in this cast, while some have pointed out how spot on these actors will be capturing the vision that Eiichiro Oda had. In an SBS, Oda did say that each character would belong to different countries, and he stayed true to this as this casting was announced, with little tweaks here and there. The vision that Oda has given is always going to look towards his fans and how much he cherishes them. Oda has stayed true to his characters with this casting and has caused every one of his fans to cheer for him even more. As someone who is of Mexican/Peruvian descent and seeing Inaki Godoy taking the lead in this anime live-action brings so much excitement for me and many others. There has been so much diversity lately and bringing forward so many POC actors to taking the stage lately (The Eternals, Black Panther, etc) has shown so much success. We show our support for Oda and these amazing actors, we will cheer them on and let them know that they are in a safe place in our fandom.

I’m signing off now, and while I turn back my Animal Crossing, I leave with a smile upon my face as I also know that we are inching forward with One Piece 1000 episode as well. The good news keeps coming forward for Oda and One Piece, and we are just along for this very long journey. Now, all we need to do is wait for the release date to be announced, so in the words of Luffy, “I’ll be waiting for you in Wano!”