The power of a record-setting global behemoth like One Piece is impressive in the media landscape, capable of commanding the direction of its future adaptations. While the anime does its best to adapt the manga as closely as possible, ambitiously fleshing out panels as it goes, the live-action Netflix series has a different advantage: decades of lore and iconic characters.

One Piece fans typically bicker about accuracy in depicting the source material, sparking multiple controversies about casting, but the flames die down once the full product is released. Such is the case with season 2, unleashing wonderful renditions of beloved characters, including some shockingly early cameos of crucial players from potentially hundreds of chapters ahead.

To discuss these additions, among a wide-ranging variety of topics, Screen Rant got to sit down with Eric Litman, ACE, one of the primary editors who worked on One Piece’s live-action series. With him primarily handling episodes #1, #2, and #5 and co-editing others, Litman had a direct hand in the season’s execution of its greatest cameos.

One Piece’s Biggest Live-Action Cameos Ever Were a Massive Team Effort

Courtesy of Netflix

As if to outdo welcome surprises like season 1’s incorporation of Vice Admiral Garp and his relationship with Luffy, season 2 brought audiences glimpses of Sabo, Brook, Bartolomeo, and Yorki. Despite being introduced as far ahead as the post-war portion of the Summit War Saga in Sabo’s case, the moving parts all linked to the established canon rather seamlessly.

Sabo was certainly a big surprise alongside additional details given about Dragon and Gold Roger’s lineage in episode #1, but episode #2 was a particularly precious collection of moments to handle. Obviously, Laboon’s story was a major component to that, but Litman spoke particularly about handling a future Straw Hat who appears hundreds of chapters later, saying:

“That episode will always have a special place in my heart. Between all the action we had, the hidden Easter eggs, we meet Brook! That’s going to be a big reveal, and the fans are gonna love that. Luffy singing Binks’ Brew, another fan favorite! We were constantly thinking about these things and what that would do for the fans and the story.”

Brook’s introduction was organic despite him originally coming much later, because he helps flesh out Laboon’s story from the Reverse Mountain Arc. It’s an incredibly endearing way to truly sell the tragedy of the Island Whale’s story, and Litman and the team were dedicated to bringing them to life. Such is the case for multiple One Piece cameos.

Cameos Benefited from Oda’s World-Building in Live-Action

Naturally, creating these scenes was no mean feat. Careful casting, close consultation of the manga’s subject matter, and a coordinated effort across multiple divisions.

“That being said, we have a lot of interesting Easter eggs and developments of characters in the manga which came a lot later. Our producers, writers, and director were able to incorporate them into the scripts, into the story much sooner, making it all cohesively meld together.”

Everything is deliberate with respect for how it can still move the story forward. Bartolomeo’s introduction makes sense, despite his character in particular being the latest to be introduced. But in chapter #720, he specifically calls back to the Loguetown Arc, depicted in One Piece season 2, episode #1, as what endeared him to Luffy.

While Yorki’s debut goes hand-in-hand with that of Brook, their ultimate fate is still being reserved for what’ll hopefully be a future season. Sabo’s, the most subdued yet surprising of them all, merely tied together the presence of Dragon and his impending revolutionary actions against the World Government. All of this is taken into consideration.

“We’re not cheeky with some of our stuff, we just go for it. It’s a fun genre to play with, such a welcoming material to pull from. How the writers and producers incorporate storylines and story arcs from the manga early into the live-action to cohesively flow, it’s interesting and really well-done and a new way to tell the story.”

Despite every cameo stunning the fans, though, the spirit of the production was still firmly grounded in the manga, treating it as a bible (not unlike Kuma’s bible Easter egg) in adapting One Piece. Litman even spoke about how closely they stick to adapting the panels, stating:

“Baroque Works in general, when we open up the first episode, with the Marines under attack, and we meet Ms. Valentine, Mr. 5 and his booger bombs, and to speak of panel-accurate, we referenced the manga a lot. We look at those shots, I’m sure the production has those shots in mind when shooting them, and when we go back and come up with additional shots we need while working with previs editors and VFX, we use those manga panels as a reference, to honor what Oda had in place.”

The running theme in adapting One Piece to live-action is just how closely the team consults the manga, even when creating original moments unseen from the pages. It’s truly thrilling seeing these moments, such as Bartolomeo witnessing what he would soon call a “miracle” at Loguetown, and frankly, that’s exactly what many fans got to see across One Piece season 2.

Release Date

August 31, 2023

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Matt Owens, Steven Maeda, Joe Tracz

Directors

Tim Southam, Marc Jobst, Josef Kubota Wladyka

Writers

Tiffany Greshler, Diego Gutierrez, Allison Weintraub, Lindsay Gelfand

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  Iñaki Godoy

  Monkey D. Luffy

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