“We want to be a beacon of light”: One Piece Netflix Live-Action Showrunner Makes Major Promise to Keep Series Light Hearted for a Surprising Reason

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece stands tall in both the Manga world and the fiction landscape in general, having sold more than half a billion copies worldwide.

The series, which is centered around rubbery Monkey D. Luffy and his journey from the East Blue Sea, started in 1997 and to this day is as relevant and popular as it was at the time of its inception. And in between, Oda has managed to bag different opportunities through adaptations.

Read more: ‘End of an Era’: Fans Shocked, Still Trying to Process as One Piece Enters its Final Arc

One Piece TV series that swiftly picked up pace just a few years after the manga series’ popularity continues to run simultaneously (20 seasons so far) and follows Luffy’s journey, as he attempts to become the King of all pirates.

Netflix Collaborating With Eiichiro Oda for One Piece’s Live-Action Adaptation

Eiichiro Oda‘s manga series is expected to be wrapped up and reach its conclusion by 2025. Whether the show will carry on (even after touching 1000 episodes) remains unclear.

However, Netflix has jumped into the mix by deciding to kick start the new live-action One Piece series on 31st August. The likes of Iñaki Godoy (Monkey D. Luffy), Mackenyu (Roronoa Zoro), Emily Rudd (Nami), Jacob Romero Gibson (Usopp), and Taz Skylar (Sanji) will join hands to make up the main-character team for the series.

Creator Oda will be involved as Executive Producer on the series that will focus on the desire of Luffy, a young pirate captain, to discover the “mythical treasure known as One Piece” with his newly assembled crew Straw Hat Pirates in season one.

What fans are left wondering, though, is what will be the overwhelming mood and theme of the Japanese series after going through the creative washing machine of Netflix figureheads.

Read more: Netflix Reveals Luffy Live Action Outfit in Tudum Event

Matt Owens Reveals How He Wants to Shape Netflix’s One Piece

Those who’ve seldom picked up any Manga or anime series, usually perceive their plots as either too cartoonish or too dark. And when the big studios bet on them through live-action adaptations, the characters mostly end up falling into the latter trap in the real world.

Now that is not to say, One Piece doesn’t include some dark or serious moments (Luffy recently came close to dying during his fight with the Beast Pirate Kaido), but the most dominating – or perhaps the best selling point – of the series has always been how light-hearted it has been throughout three decades.

Matt Owens, who is the showrunner of Netflix’s One Piece, said this on the potential theme:

“A lot of the big epic series that are on tv at the moment – and no disrespect to them, I love them – but they’re all so dark. We wanted to build a show with just as much mythology and lore and brilliance as some of those other blockbuster shows, but be the blue skies, sunny, optimistic version of them. We want to be able to sit on the same shelf as them, but be a beacon of light.”

Owens’ esteemed resume includes writing roles in projects like The Defenders, Marvel’s Luke Cage, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Considering how serious and action-focused all three shows are, it’s also going to be challenging for him to carry the light “beacon”, akin to the genius Oda.

Source: ComicBook

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