[This story contains spoilers from One Piece season two.]

When Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation arrived in 2023, the odds of it launching a global franchise seemed low. The success rate within the pipeline of Western anime-to-live-action adaptations wasn’t great, from Dragonball Evolution and Ghost in the Shell to Netflix’s own Death Note and Cowboy Bebop — the latter, like One Piece, from Tomorrow Studios. 

But the series based on Eiichiro Oda’s long-running manga — which has also been adapted as a similarly long-running anime from Toei Animation — was a resounding success among fans, becoming a near-instant hit for the streamer. That was due in large part to Oda’s influence and involvement, as well as the years of work from executive producers and former showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda. 

Maeda would step down from his showrunner position following season one, with Owens also departing after his work on season two, which he helmed with Joe Tracz. Following the show’s season three renewal, Tracz — who is currently in the midst of filming — was joined at the helm by writer and co-executive producer Ian Stokes, taking the Straw Hats into their next arc: a battle against Baroque Works and its leader warlord Crocodile (Joe Manganiello) to save Princess Vivi’s (Charithra Chandran) desert kingdom. 

“Matt and Steve did the hard work in season one of proving that you could adapt One Piece successfully into live action, which is something that I feel was no short order. It’s a huge world. It’s epic and colorful, and seems like the kind of thing that you couldn’t do, particularly when live-action adaptations don’t always have the greatest track record in Hollywood,” Tracz told The Hollywood Reporter when asked about how Maeda and Owens’ groundwork will permeate future seasons. “Everything we did in season two was building off the incredible work that Matt and Steve did in finding a way to not only adapt this series into live action, but to adapt it in a way that so beautifully spoke to both existing fans and people who had no idea this cool new show they were watching on Netflix was based on anything.”

With the entirety of season two now available to stream on Netflix, THR unpacks with Tracz below how you adapt a series of One Piece’s magnitude while balancing series needs with Hollywood interest after becoming the rare successful live-action anime adaptation. He also chat about those (known) season three castings and what the hopeful finale says about the entirety of season two. 

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What did you learn about helming this series while working with Matt, and how did you carry that into your work with your new co-showrunner, Ian Stokes?

One Piece is a show that requires two showrunners. We could probably use six. (Laughs.) We film in South Africa with two units simultaneously. It’s not like a leading and a following unit — a first unit and a second unit. We have two full units basically shooting two blocks simultaneously. It’s a massive show, and it’s the only way we can actually film it. Most days, Matt and I on season two, or even Ian in season three — you need to be not just two places at once, but 10 places at once. This is a show that requires multiple people at the helm. When I came into season two, I learned so much from how Matt and Steve figured out how to make this behemoth of a show. 

What will your collaboration with Ian bring tonally and creatively to season three? 

Fans will know Ian’s work, even if they don’t know [they know it] because he’s been on the show from the beginning with Matt and Steve. He was there at the ground level. His stepping up was so natural because he was someone who knows this show inside and out from green light on. He has such an institutional memory of the show. Every season, he’s been out here in Cape Town helping us out on set. His experience level is incredible, and he’s such a great partner. We were obviously inheriting such a great cast and crew assembled by Matt and Steve in season one. So even as some faces come and go, there’s a sense of legacy for the show that, as we enter season three, we’re all carrying on. 

Season two covers a lot of ground, and you’ve previously confirmed you’re going to focus on the Alabasta arc for season three. How are the writers thinking about how much ends up in a single season? How much of this adaptation will you be trying to do, or can you do, as a one-to-one arc adaptation each season? 

The big decision going into season two was how much of the Alabasta saga or the Baroque Works saga would be covered. Do you try to fit that into eight episodes? You certainly could, but you’d have to leave out a lot of stuff. You could do the speed run version of it, but if you did, there are things you’d miss — the moments of the crew just being goofy with each other, which is such an important part of why we love them as a family, and the fights that challenge them in unique ways. We have the Unluckies this season, which I feel many fans probably expected us to cut. You could have had Sanji (Taz Skylar) in Little Garden not fighting an otter and a vulture with a machine gun, but if you cut that — if you lose the things that make One Piece special — is this still One Piece?

So the choice was made early on to let this season be the Grand Line season. It was partially driven by wanting to make sure we gave this incredible arc the breathing room to matter. You’re not going to care about saving Alabasta if you just learned about it 45 minutes ago. And Vivi is a character with an incredible arc, so getting to know the different sides of her was important to us. It also meant that this season got to live in the adventure storytelling spirit. This is a travel season. Each of these islands will have a challenge for all of them, but each arc is structured around a specific Straw Hat, testing them in a different way. It’s the answer to that barrel pledge. We’re going to fulfill our dreams, we’re going to leave home, we’re going to go to a place none of us has ever been before. What happens when we get there? That sets up the quest at the end of the season. 

With how much there is to adapt — and the 12-season arc Tomorrow Studios producers Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements previously shared they hoped for — have you considered any contingency plans in case you can’t do whatever your ideal number of seasons is?

A lot of us have kids, so we just need to start training them to know what they need to be a showrunner so that they can just inherit it, so we can keep making One Piece even after I’m too feeble to move. (Laughs.) Look, we all feel lucky to be working on a show we all care about, so I think we want to get to tell all the stories we love.

You have a few recognizable names in season two — Joe, Charithra, Katey Sagal, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and David Dastmalchian, to name a few. How did you get these folks to join you for season two?

The fun thing about season two is that people know the show. Not knowing what that casting process was like in season one, I can imagine it was probably hard to try to sell. Season two meant we got to approach some big names and discover they were actually fans. David and Katey were wish list people for us. From day one, I wanted David to be Mr. 3 because I’m such a huge fan. Everything he does is memorable and unique. I was just writing those scripts with him in mind. Then it turned out that not only was he game to play, but his son is a huge One Piece fan, and he came to set. He brought his whole family out. I’d dreamed of him being Mr. 3, but it was a dream come true for him, too, because he was doing something that his son got to watch. 

A show with this level of success can lead to increased interest within Hollywood. Have you seen that yet among interested performers, and how do you avoid stunt casting with something like this, where there’s so much also riding on the right choice with fans? 

We have incredible casting agents [Junie Lowry Johnson and Libby Goldsteini], who, I think, are never looking to do stunt casting. It’s always who’s the best actor for a certain role. Mr. 3 and Dr. Kureha, we knew those roles would be ones we would love to have David and Katey come play with us, and we were lucky enough to have them. For Charithra, I’d never seen Bridgerton, but when I watch casting tapes, I never watch what an actor has done before because I don’t want to be biased. So I remember watching Charithra’s audition and being like, “She is such a star. I made an incredible discovery!” (Laughs) And her role is so tricky because she’s playing two roles for us — who we meet her as and who we discover she is, and she plays them both so well. So it’s never stunt casting. It’s often a case of me being in a One Piece-world tunnel and not knowing that someone’s a star of one of the world’s biggest shows. 

You’ve already announced Xolo Maridueña and Cole Escola for season three. What most impressed you about them in their roles — either from their auditions or anything they’ve already filmed? 

I love Cole. In 2011, we worked on a theater project together. They did a reading of mine, and they’ve been someone whom I always wanted to work with again. Like with Katey and with David, it’s how do I get Cole into something? Bon Clay is just the perfect role for them. Obviously, we’re talking season three, and that casting is already out there, but I just want to say that I can’t wait until people can see Cole’s version of Bon Clay. 

Have you completed casting for season three? 

We’re mostly cast, and two months into filming. 

Like last season, there are scenes that feel ripped from the manga, but that unfold in slightly different ways. One is Nami’s (Emily Rudd) response to Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) messing up her coat on Drum Island. Another is Zoro (Mackenyu) and his response to Mr. 3 (Dastmalchian) on the wax Candelabra, which feels like it amps up his defiance and valiance. How are you thinking about adapting these moments  — when you lean into the comedy on the page versus the emotional resonance? 

We messed up the coat in a different way. (Laughs.) We knew we wanted that image of the coat, and when the story took us away from how it happened in the manga, we still wanted to nod to it. We found a way to get that sleeve ripped off and have Nami call Luffy on that. So even when something in the story takes a different direction, we still want to honor that. For the Mr. 3 and Zoro moment, you could play that as comedic. There’s a version in which Zoro has a vain desire to be remembered. But Zoro has something he stands for. He knows who he is, and even though Mr. 3 wants these three to die scared, Zoro isn’t going to give in to his fear.

At first, he tries to cut his legs off, and he’s willing to carry those scars the rest of our series. He’s showing that there is nothing he wouldn’t sacrifice, and when it seems like he’s going to be stuck in this forever, he makes a choice not to let Mr. 3 win emotionally. He’s going to give this dramatic pose because that’s the legacy he wants. What is also important about that moment is that it inspires Vivi, who is on the verge of giving up. She’s just been told that things in her home country are even worse than they were when she left. Obviously, we would never adapt that moment without Zoro striking that pose, but he actually ends up also inspiring Vivi to keep fighting.

That thread of earnestness in the plot and character development definitely makes its way into the finale. How did you ultimately land on that Drum Island-Chopper-Vivi arc being the endpoint for season 2 versus going farther? 

Matt and Steve made a great decision in season one, which is to end the season with the barrel pledge — the Straw Hats all pledging their friendship and announcing their dreams to each other. In the manga, it comes a little later, but they moved it to be the emotional climax of that first season, and it was cut so wonderfully, with flashes of their childhoods and the memories of what inspired those dreams. So we knew we had a lot to live up to in season two. We wanted a climax that was as emotionally moving and memorable as possible, and Oda gave us that with the cherry blossom snow.

The Chopper and Hiriluk (Mark Harelik) story is so much about saying nothing is impossible, which is a mantra that is very close to Luffy’s heart, too. It’s a sense that this person who’s no longer with us, his life’s work is being completed. He dreamed of giving this broken community a vision of hope that seemed impossible. He does that, and in doing so, he also inspires our characters. Just as that barrel pledge in season one was an emotional climax where characters got to come together on deck to experience something greater than themselves — a sense of community, belonging, and inspiration. The cherry blossom snow, the pink snow, does that for them. It’s what unites them and sends them off on this next mission to help Vivi, setting another course. 

That shot rendering the Cherry Blossom tree using the pink clouds is stunning. It’s really emotional.

In a drawing, it’s so easy to draw clouds that look like a tree. In live-action, it’s so much harder. The word we got from Oda that I just loved and now always use is, “Think poetry.” So, as we looked at various versions of that tree, some were really literal. But the permission to embrace what’s poetic about that moment really helped us find the best possible version of that scene.

Going full circle, you are obviously already working on season three. Do you anticipate you’ll be back as co-showrunner for four or beyond if you get it? 

I love the story. I would love to keep being able to tell the story. I think the bigger question is, will we get to keep telling the story? All of us here have the appetite to keep telling it. There are arcs we’ll be sitting on set like, “Wouldn’t it be amazing to get to this moment? Wouldn’t it be amazing during this arc?” That’s really a question for people watching the show who can keep giving us a thumbs up. 

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One Piece season two is currently streaming on Netflix.