Filming of Netflix’s new One Piece live-action series has been a long time coming since its first announcement back in January 2020. One Piece is another feather in Cape Town’s cap when it comes to Hollywood magic that used the Mother City as a setting.
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Delayed by a pandemic amongst other things, production for the long-anticipated Netflix production finally began in February this year and we are hyped.
For those of you new to the series, One Piece is an anime adaptation of the much-beloved manga by Eiichiro Oda. The action-packed story follows Monkey D. Luffy’s quest to raise his own crew (The Straw Hats), find the mythical treasure known as ‘One Piece’ and declare himself as the Pirate King within the ruthless and cut-throat ‘Golden Age of Pirates’.
Oh, I should probably mention that Luffy’s body has turned to rubber thanks to accidentally eating a ‘Devil fruit’, writes Cape {town} Etc’s Tauhira Ajam. On the plus side though, this gives him enormous strength and agility to help him on his adventures.
A two-minute sneak peek video was released on June 6 by Netflix in which Iñaki Godoy (playing Luffy) along with showrunners Steven Maeda and Matt Owens introducing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the incredible recreations of the iconic One Piece pirate world. The clip features the Going Merry and Miss Love Duck ships, fan-favourite Baratie restaurant, and the crucial Arlong’s map room.
In his introduction, Godoy mentions being in South Africa, reminding us that filming is taking place at our very own Cape Town Film Studios. In fact, Netflix announced that the live-action series will feature 50 South African cast members and 1000 crew in aid of supporting black creatives in the South African film and television industry.
It’s been said that alongside Maeda and Owens, Oda himself is overseeing the series. Sufficed to say, for the sake of the pride of South African anime lovers – and our creative industry too, we have high hopes that Netflix will redeem itself after the unfortunate failure of Cowboy Bebop’s live-action series attempt. From what we’ve seen so far though, it looks like a good start.
While Netflix has yet to announce any official release date, according to a tweet from Marc Jobst (episode director and executive producer) in May, they’ve wrapped up filming the first two episodes of the show. So the rest should be on their way pretty soon.
Based on the evidence at hand, it seems that the first 10 episodes making up Season 1 are likely to showcase the East Blue saga which introduces the original 5 Straw Hat crew members: Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji. To keep up to date with all One Piece updates, follow the show’s official account on Twitter.
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Ramaphosa takes a peek into Netflix’s Project Panda at Cape Town Film Studios
Picture: Screenshot / Youtube
