Six new cast members join the crew.
Netflix has been keeping the details for its upcoming live-action adaptation of manga/anime One Piece under pretty tight wraps, with no firm announcements of which parts of the 25-years-and-counting-old franchise it’s planning to cover. A bit of a hint, though, has come with the second round of cast announcements, which show the story will be progressing far enough for at least this group of a half dozen supporting characters from the pirate saga.
From left to right on the top row those are Koby, Alvida, and Helmeppo, and underneath them you’ll find Buggy, Arlong, and Garp, as they appear in creator Eiichiro Oda’s manga art. In Netflix’s One Piece, they’ll be portrayed by…
Morgan Davies, Ilia Isorelys Paulino, and Aidan Scott (top row) and Jeff Ward, McKinley Belcher, and Vincent Regan (bottom row).
Most of those characters show up very early in the original work, but Garp, the latest to arrive, doesn’t appear until the 68th episode of the anime and 92nd chapter of the manga. Netflix hasn’t yet made any announcements about how many episodes are in the initial batch its greenlighting for production, but it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re not going to go with 68 (or 34, if you account for anime episodes usually being roughly 30 minutes compared to an hour for live-action shows), which means there’s likely going to be some extensive condensing/rearranging of storylines to get Garp (and Arlong, whose anime/manga debuts are in Episode 31 and Chapter 69), onscreen.
実写ドラマシリーズ「ONE PIECE」追加キャスト解禁
— Netflix Japan | ネットフリックス (@NetflixJP) March 8, 2022
コビー役：モーガン・デイヴィス
アルビダ役：イリア・イソレリス・パウリーノ
ヘルメッポ役：エイダン・スコット
バギー役：ジェフ・ワード
アーロン役：マッキンリー・ベルチャー
ガープ役：ヴィンセント・リーガン@onepiecenetflix#ONEPIECE pic.twitter.com/c6On96YDWd
When Netfix announced casting for the core members of the Straw Hat Pirates back in autumn, online reactions in Japan were lukewarm, but Twitter commenters seem a lot more supportive of this batch of decisions, especially the choice for Garp.
“Alvida’s actress looks totally Alvida-like.”
“Garp is so spot-on it’s like the anime design is based on the actor.”
“Garp’s actor is perfect.”
“He’s so shibui.”
“He looks even cooler than he does in the anime.”
“Personally, Alvida and Garp are just like I’d imagine they’d look in real life.”
“Those two are the only ones I think are good casting matches.”
“I think all of them are really good choices, but isn’t Buggy’s actor too handsome for the part?”
“I guess they’re gonna cover him up with CG effects.”
“Probably a lot of CG for Arlong [since the character is a fish-man].”
“If they want to stay loyal to the original designs, the entire series is going to need a lot of CG.”
“Ironic how the actor for Koby is named ‘Morgan.’”
“I don’t know anything about One Piece, but it really looks like they’re transferring it directly into reality, so I’ve made up my mind to look forward to this.”
Still now word on when Netflix’s One Piece is set to premiere, but considering how things went with their live-action Cowboy Bebop, odds are they’re going to take all the time they think they need to get the adaptation ready.
Source: Press release, Twitter/@NetflixJP (1, 2)
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