Although it's one of the most popular manga series to ever exist, it was always going to be very difficult to adapt One Piece to live action. The manga is weird, wild and super-stylized, so any adaptation would need to thread the needle very carefully.
Somehow, Netflix pulled it off with the show's first season, which aired back in 2023. The second season is finally expected to come out this year; we'll likely learn the exact release date this Saturday during Netflix's Tudum event. We'll also see a proper trailer.
In the meantime, Netflix released a new clip from the show. The Straw Hat pirates — Zero, Usopp, Sanji, Nami and captain Monkey D. Luffy — have all gathered for a sleepover. They all live on the same pirate ship, so effectively every night is a sleepover, but that's the kind of wacky cartoon-esque humor the show is managing the pull off. Also there's a snail that's a projector.
The clip ends with reindeer tracks clomping across the screen. That's a reference to a new character who will show up this season: Tony Tony Chopper: a blue-nosed reindeer who gained the ability to speak, think, and transform into a human after eating the Human-Human Fruit, as has been known to happen from time to time.
As you can see, Tony Tony Chopper is a tiny little reindeer thing. How do you adapt that sort of character to live-action? We'll have a much better idea this Saturday, but we've heard that the show intends to use prosthetics rather than turn Tony into a completely CGI creation. I have to imagine they'll be some CGI involved, but on a show this stylized, anything is possible.
Did I mention that Tony Tony Chopper is a doctor? He's a tiny talking reindeer doctor. I still can't believe this show is real.
We'll also presumably find out who's playing Tony Tony Chopper at the Tudum event. Many and more things will be revealed, about One Piece and a lot of other Netflix shows.
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