We now have the first five names who will play the crew of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Netflix’s live adaptation of the popular manga and anime One Piece has proceeded a little further into the pipeline with the announcement on Tuesday of the five key cast members who will take part as the Straw Hats squad, the central group in the series.
Playing the main protagonist Monkey D. Luffy is “Go Youth!” and “Who Killed Sara?” star Iñaki Godoy, while “Pacific Rim: Uprising” and “Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter actor Mackenyu will play Roronoa Zoro. Emily Rudd from “Fear Street” and “Hunters” will play Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson from “Greenleaf” and “All Rise” will play Usopp, and Taz Skylar from “Boiling Point” and “Villain” will complete the unit as Sanji.
The streaming platform also revealed a note from One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda about how the live-action series is coming along. In a tweet by the show’s official account, Oda shared that they’ve been making “steady progress” but it’s exactly this slow progression that “can yield something special.”
“It’ll take a bit more time to get this show done, but we’ll continue to do our best to deliver a show that we’re confident will be enjoyed by everyone around the world!” said Oda about the show. It was first made known to the public in July 2017 and was formally announced back in January 2020.
Last September, Netflix gave One Piece the first glimpse into the live-action foray by teasing the official logo and the script of the pilot episode, which will apparently be called “Romance Dawn.”
One Piece follows the light-hearted but strong-willed pirate Luffy who, inspired by his childhood idol “Red Haired” Shanks, forms his rag-tag crew called the Straw Hat Pirates and sets off on a quest to find the One Piece treasure to become King of the Pirates.
Maeda serves as co-writer, showrunner, and executive producer on the live-action series, with Matt Owens also co-writing and executive producing. Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios will executive produce along with Oda. The series is a co-production between Netflix and Tomorrow Studios, with Netflix handling the physical production.
