One Piece: producers assure that the series could last 12 seasons

After a couple of weeks of its premiere, One Piece – 90% remains one of the most viewed titles in the Netflix catalog, officially making it the most successful manga adaptation created in Hollywood to date. Against all odds from the most demanding fans, the series managed to satisfy connoisseurs and introduced this story to new viewers who will not necessarily dedicate time to the extensive anime. The only thing that was needed was for the company to confirm a second season, something that has already happened and will help the producers fulfill their plans to make at least 6 complete seasons.

Keep reading: Emily Rudd thanks fans for the unprecedented success of One Piece

‘One Piece’ is one of the riskiest productions for Netflix

Eiichiro Oda established himself as one of the most respected mangakas in the medium thanks to One Piece, although it was certainly the animation that helped catapult his global fame. It is not strange that in Japan these stories are adapted to live action, but the creator did not seem very interested in following that path, much less letting the Western film industry try it. That is why his followers were so surprised when it was announced that Netflix had acquired the rights to develop a live action series.

If in Hollywood this type of adaptations always fails, the alliance with the platform felt even more risky, since they did not have great track records in their catalog. Some fans thought it was a good sign that they were trying to make a series instead of a movie, but it was clear that the original material was too peculiar, complex and extensive to find a fair development in this format. When the casting was announced, the real experts were happy about the diversity of the cast, but there were still many doubts about how they would treat the story as such.

One Piece has been on the air and publishing new issues for too many years, and although Oda promises that everything makes sense for the official closure, getting to the last part of his story could still take a while. On top of everything, there are certain elements in the manga that can feel more like filler, something that also happens a lot in the anime, although this can be more easily ignored in the live action because it is technically only based on the printed material.

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It is a fact that the series was a success for Netflix, and it is also a fact that the adaptation is considered to forever change the way this type of work is treated, something that the company wanted to establish for future projects. But despite that there are still several pending on the list. For example, the production company is still analyzing numbers to find out if the large investment they made paid off or not, and the first season is one of the most expensive productions in history.

‘One Piece’ could last 12 seasons

Likewise, many wonder how they will be able to catch up, especially when their actors can’t stay young for twenty years like the characters in the manga. With this in mind, how many seasons are you actually aiming to develop? In interview with deadlinethe producers confirmed that they are already planning the following seasons. Marty Adelstein revealed:

We have hopes for 12 seasons, there is a lot of material.

Becky Clements added:

We have over 1080 chapters of the manga at this point. We have plans with Matt Owens about how we would split up multiple seasons, and I think even if we did six seasons, we’d probably only use half the manga chapters. I really could go on and on and on.

Both producers recognize that the success of One Piece It has a lot to do with the participation of its creator, because thanks to their conversations they were able to agree on which parts of the manga are essential and which can be removed from the adaptation without affecting the general narrative. Everyone involved is already talking about how they will improve things for a second season, now that Netflix has already given the green light to the idea after spending a lot of time analyzing views and the general context in Hollywood due to the writers and actors strike.

Don’t leave without reading: One Piece: live action director talks about the difficulties of adapting Eiichiro Oda’s work