I had just gotten to Tokyo to meet with Oda again in April and have conversations with him about where the cuts were, some things that he wanted to see. Photo: NetflixĭEADLINE: Had all the cuts been finalized by the time the WGA strike started May 2 or was there unfinished business when you left? Were there surprises when you watched the show on Netflix? (L to R) EP Matt Owens, Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro in season 1 of One Piece. I’m glad that it’s out there and I’m glad for the reception that it’s gotten but there was a little bit of a hole in my heart not being able to engage and participate but I’m thankful now for the opportunity like with people such as yourself. I’m very proud of it, and I still loved to be able to watch it, but not being able to share that, especially with my cast, it was tough. This was five years of my life, getting this show made. OWENS: It was a little bit tough not being able to experience it firsthand or really even talk about it. I love this series a lot, and I wanted to be the one to shepherd and protect it and to hopefully make a version that could inspire people the same way that the original inspired me.ĭEADLINE: How did you feel then not being able to attend the One Piece premiere and watching the series’ success from the picket lines? That’s what really galvanized me to, once I heard that someone was trying to make a live-action, to try and get involved because I owe this series a lot. I found it at a really dark and low point in my life but I also attribute it with helping me get out of it because One Piece is such a wonderful, positive, inspirational series.

So I thought, well, now’s a great time to try and get into One Piece because there are hundreds and hundreds of episodes and I’m not doing anything else. I just wanted to go to work and go home and not really deal with people or be social or anything like that. I was working on trying to get into the film and television business, and I was really depressed at this time. And then there was a period of time in my early 20s, I had just recently moved to Los Angeles. It turned a lot of people off it stripped out some of the heart, it stripped out some of the danger of the world, so I dropped it.Īs I got older and continued in the genre, there was always a very vocal fan base for One Piece, guys you need to read it, you need to give it a try.

But One Piece was a little difficult because the company that was dubbing it in English notoriously did a horrible job. One Piece specifically i tried to dive into when I was younger and getting into a lot of other series like Naruto, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z. OWENS: I’ve been an anime fan my entire life. Owens also talks collaborating with Oda and how long the South Africa-based series could go, and he shares a touching personal story about the Once Piece anime which helped him land the sought-after gig of adapting the beloved IP, despite a TV resume that included a handful of lower-level writing jobs on Marvel series.ĭEADLINE: When did you discover One Piece and how did you get involved in its live-action adaptation? He reveals the Season 1 scene that makes him tear up and how he stays in touch with the Straw Hats, the breakout young stars of the live-action adventure series about an aspiring “King of the Pirates,” Luffy (Iñaki Godoy), and his crew. Photo: Marco Grobb/NetflixĪdditionally, Owens discusses the effort to bring in Jamie Lee Curtis as Doctor Kureha next season and writing the character for her, addresses Buggy’s surprise TikTok sex symbol status and why the clown and the rest of the One Piece villains keep hanging around and don’t die.

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