The Big Picture
- Iñaki Godoy’s portrayal of Monkey D. Luffy in the live-action One Piece series impressed creator Eiichiro Oda and the rest of the team behind the show.
- Oda was heavily involved in the adaptation process, ensuring that the show stayed true to the source material and captured the spirit of the iconic characters.
- The rest of the cast, including Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero, and Taz Skyler, received praise for their performances and the effort put into representing their respective characters accurately.
From the moment he was introduced as the face of Netflix’s One Piece live-action series, all eyes were on Iñaki Godoy and how he would bring to life Monkey D. Luffy, the cheerful, endearing leader of the Straw Hat Pirates and one of the most famous manga and anime characters of all time. He had experience starring on The Imperfects at Netflix as well as a long run on Telemundo’s La querida de Centauro, but the young actor was still a relative unknown stateside. When selected to sail the East Blue, however, he far exceeded the expectations of the team behind the show, including One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. Speaking to Collider’s Arezou Amin, showrunner Steven Maeda says that the mangaka was blown away by the accuracy of Godoy’s Luffy relative to the source material.
Oda was deeply involved in the process of adapting One Piece to live-action which is partly why the show has been hailed as one of the few to break the anime/manga adaptation curse. With the manga ongoing since 1997 and the anime beginning its run in 1999, fans have built up a long relationship with Luffy and his pirate crew as they sailed the seas, meaning it was all the more important to the team to get this adaptation right. That process started at the Straw Hats and especially at Luffy, the heart and soul of the series. Perfect practical recreations of the Going Merry and Kaya’s mansion wouldn’t matter if the cast didn’t evoke the same feeling as Oda’s iconic pirates.
When asked about the changes to the One Piece live-action series that Oda loved, Maeda revealed that there were a lot of compromises back and forth with the mangaka. The one thing that really enraptured him, however, was Godoy’s take on Luffy which exuded the exact level of charming optimism the character is known for:
“We had major, major consultation on a lot of the things that we wanted to do, and when he had issues with stuff, we talked about them and tried to come up with compromises and things that worked for him, for sure. So, yeah, that process was definitely a challenge. It wasn’t the usual studio notes or network notes process, but at the same time, it’s his world, and he created this wonderful sandbox, and we just get to play in it. So definitely, everything was done with an eye toward having him be able to bless the project and all the elements of it. I think he enjoyed the brain pursuit. He certainly didn’t think that we were going to be able to cast someone for Luffy as good as Iñaki, but I think he was really sold when he saw some of the footage.”
Godoy Embodied Everything Luffy Stands For in the One Piece Team’s Eyes
Selling Oda, who has spent over 1,000 chapters drawing Luffy and telling his story from East Blue to Wano Country, on his portrayal is about as high of praise as Godoy can receive. He also won over Maeda who firmly believes One Piece simply wouldn’t reach the same level of quality without their star in tow. “He’s amazing,” the showrunner added. “It was incredible casting, finding him, and then a lot of luck in getting him in the right place to be able to do the show. But he really does good by that character, and I have to say, I love Iñaki. He truly is that character. I mean, he is so much like Luffy. I do not think we could have found a backup for Iñaki who would have been half as good playing Luffy.”
The rest of One Piece‘s cast has been a source of praise too. Joining Godoy’s hunt for the One Piece is Mackenyu as the three-sword style master Zoro, Emily Rudd as the navigator Nami, Jacob Romero as the sharpshooter Usopp, and Taz Skyler as the chef Sanji. The team also went to great lengths to ensure other colorful characters from the manga were properly represented like Buggy the Clown (Jeff Ward) whom director Marc Jobst credited for his most difficult shoot on the project.
All episodes of Netflix’s live-action One Piece series are now available. Check out the trailer, featuring Godoy’s aspiring King of the Pirates Luffy, below.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
