Calling all One Piece fans! We have really great news to share. The smash-hit fantasy adventure series has been renewed for a second season! This means we haven’t seen the last of Luffy and his ragtag crew of misfits called the Straw Hat Pirates. Get ready to set sail once more in a One Piece season 2.
One Piece season 1 premiered on Netflix on Aug. 31, 2023, and tons of people tuned in to watch the new series. In just its first four days on the streaming platform (Aug. 28-Sept. 3), the show managed to pull in a whopping 18.5 million views, securing the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s top 10 English-language TV shows list.
This was great news for fans, but still, no one was expecting the show to be renewed this fast. Netflix doesn’t usually renew its new series so soon after they premiere, especially for expensive shows like One Piece. But we’re not complaining, though!
On Sept. 14, Netflix announced that the live-action series had been renewed for a second season. This renewal comes only two weeks after the first season’s premiere. In a special video, creator and illustrator of the One Piece manga series Eiichiro Oda shared the great news of the show’s renewal. Check it out below.
Here are some of the impressive feats the show has managed to reach as of this week via the Netflix press release.
Renewal status: Renewed for a second season
Initially, we reported that all the scripts for One Piece season 2 were finished. We had acquired this information from what was said by one of the show’s producers. Back in September 2023, CEO of Tomorrow Studios, Marty Adelstein, told Variety that scripts were ready. However, this turned out not to be true at all. If you weren’t aware, Tomorrow Studios is one of the production companies behind the live-action series.
In an October 2023 interview with Deadline, show co-creator Matt Owens said that some work had been done regarding the scriptwriting process before the strikes started, but no scripts had actually been completed.
"“We did start our Season 2 writers room for a little bit before the strike. We didn’t get much further than starting to plan out what the season is going to be and got a couple of outlines done. But that’s as far as we got. So there are not actually any scripts for the season that are done. It’s still going to take some time.”"
He also mentions that he took a trip to Japan in April 2023 to speak with the manga creator Eiichiro Oda about plans for the second season.
"“We’ve got some outlines, and we have a really solid plan that we had communication with Oda about. Part of my trip in April was to talk to him about some of the early ideas that we had, talking to him about things that I want to include to just make sure that our ideas are in line with what he thinks.”"
When it comes to where he and the rest of the writers are in the writing process now, Owens tells Deadline that the writers’ room is back up and running. He says that they’re getting scripts done so that they can move on to “design work, scheduling, pre-production, etc.”
On Oct. 23, 2023, the official One Piece Instagram page shared a picture of Owens and the rest of the season 2 writers back on the job.
As mentioned above, the highly anticipated second season will not be coming out in 2024 like we had hoped but instead in 2025. According to Deadline, the reason for the delay was because of the writers and actors strikes, but we already knew the possibility of the new season coming in 2024 was low. I mean, the writers were still hard at work writing the scripts at the end of 2023. Filming will most likely get started sometime this year, but it'll be a lengthy process just like post-production. That being said, a 2025 release had seemed more probable. Now we have confirmation that One Piece season 2 will be coming out next year. We'll get back to you with the official release date once it's announced.
After Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates defeat Arlong and his pirate crew at Arlong Park, they set sail on the Going Merry to the Grand Line in search of the One Piece. Luffy now has the highest bounty in the East Blue ($30,000,000 berry) putting him and his crew in great danger.
The last scene of the first season shows a mysterious man burning Luffy’s wanted poster. If you read the manga series or watched the anime, you’d know who this character is. It’s none other than Smoker, a powerful Marine captain. It looks like Luffy and his crew will be meeting Smoker very soon. This can’t be good…
Netflix nor the creative team behind One Piece have revealed what the second season will be about. However, our guess is that it’ll cover the Loguetown Arc (the sixth and last story of the East Blue Saga) and the Arabasta Saga, the second saga of the manga. Once we know for sure what One Piece season 2 will be about, and which parts of the manga it’ll cover, we’ll be sure to let you know right away.
Owens tells Deadline that the “challenge of leadership” is a really big theme for the second season.
The official season 2 cast list has not been revealed. However, we have an idea of who could return. Since the show revolves around Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates, we’ll most likely see the return of the actors portraying those characters. And if the second season does cover the Loguetown Arc, we can expect to see the return of season 1 antagonists Buggy the Clown and Alvida as well.
The show’s co-creator Matt Owens pretty much confirmed in an interview with Deadline that Smoker will be in the upcoming second season. He said, “That character in the end [Smoker] is a very important character moving into our next season.” He continues on and says, “And we’re going to see this very powerful, very driven marine as a major antagonist moving forward in the story.”
Lastly, we can expect to see new characters like Doctor Kureha. In the manga and anime, she’s an elderly doctor who works on Drum Island. Owens told Deadline that Doctor Kureha is a “character who is coming up in our story.”
Here’s who we believe could return in One Piece season 2:
Also, make sure to check out our article on the characters who probably won’t be back in One Piece season 2.
An official episode count has not been revealed yet. But our guess is that we’re looking at another eight episodes for the second season. Netflix shows are typically given the same amount of episodes for each season. Sometimes the episode count could increase or decrease, but that doesn’t usually happen. We’ll share the official episode count once Netflix reveals it.
After the show’s renewal, fans began to dream cast who they want to see play the new characters in the upcoming second season. Their main pick for the Doctor Kureha character was Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis. Now, it looks like Curtis is in agreeance.
On Sept. 22, Jamie Lee Curtis expressed her support in taking on the role of Doctor Kureha in the live-action series through an Instagram post. The caption to the post reads, “ONCE the STRIKE against the greed of the AMTPT is SETTLED with a FAIR CONTRACT, I will lobby along with the growing fan frenzy to become Doctor Kureha in @onepiecenetflix.”
Well, it looks like fans and Curtis’s wish might be coming true because the show’s showrunner Matt Owens just gave his approval. He wrote in the comment section of Curtis’s post, “Mommy dearest, that’s why we sent you that figure! No need to lobby. Once we get what we deserve and get back to work let’s talk!”
Owens tells Deadline that there haven’t been any “real conversations” but that he’s ready to sit down and talk with Curtis about casting her for the role.
Fingers crossed, everything goes well and we have our new Doctor Kureha.
One Piece executive producers Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements spoke with Deadline in September 2023 and said that they have “hopes for 12 seasons.”
Here’s what Clements said about the show’s potential future:
"“We’re over 1,080 chapters at this point in the manga.. We have plans with Matt Owens for how we would break multiple seasons, and I think even if we did six seasons, we would probably only use up half of the chapters of the manga. It really could go on and on and on.”"
Owens told Deadline in his October 2023 interview that he’s in agreeance with Adelstein and Clements about the show going past two seasons.
"“I do. I want to go as long as we can. There’s a lot of source material. And while I do — just because I’m so obsessive not just with One Piece but planning in general — I do have ideas of what future seasons can be, what will be included in them, how we can, on a macro level, structure some things just because of the wealth of material that we have. I will make this show until Netflix says no more.”"
Stay tuned to Netflix Life for more news and coverage on One Piece season 2!
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