Even though thelive-action adaptation ofOne Piecewill certainly strive to stay true to its source material – the long-running manga and anime series – we’re bound to see some changes because not everything works when it is brought to flesh, bone and pirate ship wood format. In an interview with Collider’sMike Thomas, series production designerRichard Bridglandrevealedwhat changes were madein terms of ships – including the most important of all, the Going Merry.
During the interview, Bridgland explained that one of the team’s objectives was to make the sets look as real as possible within theOne Pieceworld. Even though some changes had to be made, the goal was for that change to still reflect thespirit of the manga, which in turn made Bridgland realize a curious element of the story’s ships’ figureheads:
“It’s interesting, with all the figureheads of the ships, I couldn’t just copy them straight out of the manga and make them in real life, they would look kind of goofy. I had to create a credible real-life version of them. So, what was apparent to me from going into the manga was that all of these figureheads were actually kind of symbols for the spirit of that character.”
One PieceShips Will Be a Wonder to Look At
We’ve already had a glimpse of the real-life Going Merry in trailersand promotional materialforOne Piece, and it’s pretty safe to say that the result was great. Now, it’s just a matter of checking out the entire series to see Luffy’s (Iñaki Godoy) ship from every angle possible and really understand how it ends up reflecting theprotagonist’s personality.
Of course, fans will also want to keep their eyes peeled tosee the modificationsto other ships like the Baratie floating restaurant and Alvida’s (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino) ship, just to name a couple. However, just the fact that the ships were built in lifesize format for filming suggests that, at the very least,One Piecewill be a wonder to look at.
Aside from Godoy and Isorelýs Paulino, the cast ofOne Piecealso featuresEmily Rudd(Hunters),Mackenyu(Knights of the Zodiac),Jacob Romero(Greenleaf),Taz Skylar(The Lazarus Project) andPeter Gadiot(Yellowjackets). The show also had franchise creatorEiichiro Odaas an executive producer andoverlooking every decisionmade for the adaptation.
Netflix premieresOne Piecethis Thursday, August 31. you may watch the latest trailer below:
