One Piece Season 2 Not Assured, Current Renewal Status Revealed
Fans have been kinder to Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation than any of the streamer’s other attempts at adapting anime into a flesh-and-blood performance. That might have something to do with the fact that unlike most of the other adaptations, One Piece is actually pretty good. Whether it’s good enough to earn a coveted second season still remains to be seen.
There is still no word on whether or not Netflix’s One Piece will get a Season 2.
However, the show’s creators are more than ready to go if it does. According to Bounding Into Comics, Tomorrow Studios, the studio behind One Piece, has recently confirmed that they are ready to begin production on a second season the minute Netflix gives the go-ahead—provided the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved by then.
“I think [Netflix is] looking at various situations about how many episodes they do, do they break them up?”
-Tomorrow Studios CEO Marty Adelstein
Tomorrow’s CEO Marty Adelstein revealed recently that despite no official order from Netflix for a second season, he and his team have already written or are in the process of writing scripts for One Piece season 2.
Adelstein hinted that Netflix was not so much deciding whether to renew the show as they were deciding how many episodes to devote to the second season. “I think [Netflix is] looking at various situations about how many episodes they do, do they break them up?” the CEO said. Adelstein also suspects that the streamer will have some news for them regarding One Piece season 2 in a week or two.
Adelstein seems confident that Netflix is keen to “keep this going” and admitted that he and his crew are just waiting for the streamer to come up with a “long-term strategy.” Adelstein thinks the key to One Piece‘s renewal is maintaining the series’s impressive first-season viewership numbers going into a second season.
To that end, Adelstein stressed the importance of bringing in families and viewers who aren’t familiar with the anime in addition to hardcore One Piece fans. According to the CEO, “the show stands on it’s own,” and “people really love it.”
Meanwhile, Tomorrow Studios president Becky Clements puts her faith in cold hard data when it comes to getting a second season of the popular adaptation. Clements named both “their research” and “algorithms” as the two most important things Netflix is looking at when determining if One Piece deserves a second season or not.
Clements also revealed that during multiple calls with Netflix following the show’s initial launch, she was told that the series “exceeded expectations,” news Clements considers “fantastic!”
One Piece Season 2 ETA
When discussing how soon a potential second season could be ready once the strikes come to an end, Clements stated optimistically that One Piece could be back with new episodes “somewhere between a year and 18 months” from now; however, that’s the very best case scenario. For fans of Monkey D. Luffy to actually be able to enjoy another round of the wanna-be pirate’s rubber-skinned antics so soon, several things would have to line up perfectly.
Netflix would have to renew the series for another season first of all, and secondly, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes would have to end fairly soon—something that looks rather doubtful judging by the current state of negotiations. Regardless, it should give fans hope that— at least as far as Tomorrow Studios is concerned—One Piece Season 2 seems to be well on its way to becoming a reality. Netflix, the Gum-Gum fruit is in your court.
