With 2025 coming to an end, it has officially been two whole years since the Wit Studio One Piece remake was first announced. While fans had their hopes, Jump Festa 2026 also proved to be a bust, with only a passing mention from Eiichiro Oda in terms of an update on the One Piece remake.

It’s hard to say if the coming year will finally see the project enter the public eye, but for now, it seems like the remake is in good hands and that Wit Studio is taking its time to make sure The One Piece is nothing short of perfect. After all, Wit Studio has never been one to disappoint, but the same can hardly be said of Netflix, the other major player involved in the remake.

Netflix Already Fumbled Wit Studio’s Biggest Release of 2025

An interview with George Wada, the CEO of Wit Studio and Production I.G., recently resurfaced, and what caught the eye of many is how critical Wada was of Netflix in this interview. Wada specifically criticized the platform’s marketing strategy when it comes to promoting its titles, especially in the West.

On the western side of things, there have sometimes been complaints about Netflix not promoting the anime series as much, so that they get lost a little bit. Have you experienced that with the Wit Studio offerings on there?

WADA: In my opinion, Netflix is mainly promoting the streaming platform itself. They are not promoting individual series for their own success. I think that the way that their marketing structure is set up is going to be one of their biggest challenges in the future. Netflix should understand that each and every title is important to the creators, and they should keep that in mind going forward.

While this interview is from December 2022, when Wada was first appointed CEO, little has changed since, and his criticisms of the streaming giant still hold up going into 2026. In fact, Netflix even failed to properly promote Wit Studio’s biggest release of 2025, Moonrise.

Moonrise, which was first announced in 2018, finally made its way to Netflix in April 2025. However, its release was met with crickets when the time finally came, which was baffling considering the series featured character designs from none other than Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, and featured the best of the best in terms of production staff.

The situation was so bad that Ryoma Kawamura, one of the producers, even took to X begging Netflix to promote Moonrise. The same producer also revealed that Wit Studio put together the singular trailer released a month before Moonrise’s release, which technically should have been handled by Netflix, as is the norm.

This was indeed a complete failure on Netflix’s part, dooming what could have been one of the platform’s biggest anime releases of 2025, and it does create cause for concern about the same happening to the One Piece remake.

Netflix’s Marketing Could Make or Break The One Piece Remake

Now, one might think that Moonrise was a one-off incident and that the same couldn’t possibly happen to a franchise as popular and established as One Piece. But here’s the kicker, it has, and everyone’s simply forgotten about it. Much like Moonrise, Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation was released back in 2024 with barely any promotion from Netflix leading up to its premiere.

The short was adapted from Eiichiro Oda’s one-shot of the same name, following the same legendary warrior, Ryuma fans were introduced to on Thriller Bark. While its canonicity remains murky, Monsters was in every right a One Piece release, and Netflix failed it too.

What’s worse is that poor marketing isn’t the only way Netflix could fumble the Wit Studio remake, as JoJo fans may distinctly remember how Netflix’s batch releases killed the hype surrounding Stone Ocean.

All that to say, while Netflix has expanded its anime library quite a bit in the last few years, it’s hard to say whether it has truly overcome its reputation as a platform where “anime goes to die.” As such, while the One Piece remake is in safe hands in terms of its production by Wit Studio, it’s still too early to say the same of its distribution.

Created by

Eiichiro Oda

First Film

One Piece: The Movie

First TV Show

One Piece

Cast

Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Ôtani, Yuriko Yamaguchi

Character(s)

Monkey D. Luffy, Roronora Zoro, Nami (One Piece), Nico Robin, Usopp (One Piece), Vinsmoke Sanji, Tony Tony Chopper, Franky (One Piece), Jimbei (One Piece)

Video Game(s)

One Piece: Unlimited World Red, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, One Piece: World Seeker, One Piece Odyssey

Created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, an enthusiastic pirate with a thirst for adventure, is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various powers he uses to protect himself and his friends. The manga eventually gave way to the anime series, with the two being some of history’s longest-running anime and manga series. Along with over fifty video games made over the years, the series entered the live-action world with Netflix’s 2023 adaptation.