‘One Piece’ Showrunner Breaks Down How They Pulled Off the Flashbacks

The Big Picture

• The live-action One Piece adaptation remains faithful to the original manga’s vision while introducing changes to the structure of the story.
• The flashbacks to Monkey D. Luffy’s childhood in Windmill Village have been significantly altered for Season 1 of the series, condensing the backstory and rearranging its placement in the narrative.
• Showrunner Steven Maeda faced the challenge of finding the right balance in placing the flashbacks, ultimately deciding to divide them between the first two episodes to maintain the focus on the main story and avoid overwhelming newcomers.

Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation is mostly faithful to the vision of mangaka Eiichiro Oda, but it isn’t afraid to shake up the structure of the swashbuckling pirate tale. Nowhere is this more clear than in the flashbacks to Monkey D. Luffy’s childhood in Windmill Village which has received a significant facelift for its appearance in Season 1. Speaking to Collider’s Arezou Amin, showrunner Steven Maeda explained how and why those glimpses back at a young Luffy and his time with Shanks (Peter Gadiot), captain of the Red-Haired pirates, were arranged across the first two episodes.

Originally depicted in Episode 4 of the anime, the backstory of Luffy and his signature straw hat are revealed throughout the course of Episodes 1 and 2 of the live-action series as he gathers his first two crewmates and faces Buggy for the first time. Because of how the live-action series is structured to condense the story and introduce elements of later arcs earlier than expected, finding the room to explore the relationship between Luffy and Shanks in a way that did the material justice was tricky. Shanks was inadvertently responsible for Luffy’s Devil Fruit powers and not only served as an inspiration to him on his quest to become the Pirate King but also saved his life from a frightening sea beast as a kid and fitted him with his signature straw hat.

When asked if there were any side plots or characters he wished the show could’ve spent more time with, Maeda lamented the limitations of an eight-episode Netflix series and specifically mentioned “Red-Haired” Shanks as a figure he’d love to dive into more. “That’s the thing about television is you’re constrained to roughly an hour of screen time, and usually a little less than that. So, yes, of course, it would have been lovely to be able to spend more time with Shanks, but I think we got some nice play with him and young Luffy in the Windmill Village flashbacks that play over the first two episodes.”

One Piece‘s Flashbacks Struck a Balance to Not Overtake the Main Story

Finding the balance of where to place the flashbacks within the series was a conundrum for Maeda and the crew. One Piece brings in a lot of material from Oda’s series in a short amount of time, feeling more like creating four feature-length films than a television show. It was important, then, to keep the focus on the Straw Hats’ search for Gold Roger’s treasure and all the people and places they’d visit along the way aboard the Going Merry. Maeda knew the flashbacks needed to go near the beginning, but he didn’t want to give the wrong impression of the show to newcomers nor introduce a lore dump in the second episode that would take the wind out of the pirates’ sails. He explained the reasoning behind dividing the flashbacks between the first two episodes, adding:

“That was a real challenge trying to figure out where to put those flashbacks because we experimented with all sorts of different ways to do that, including starting with all the flashbacks, which didn’t work, it felt like it was a show about a little kid; putting all the flashbacks in the first episode, which then took too much story out of the present-day story; and then putting them all in the second episode, as well, which again then felt too late. So we ended up going with the balance of having those flashbacks begin in Episode 1 and continue through Episode 2 to play, and I think that ended up being the best way to do it.”

Of course, nothing was done without the blessing of Oda who had a major hand in filming the series and approving what changes did and didn’t make it. From the cast, including Iñaki Godoy as Luffy, Mackenyu as Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp, and Taz Skyler as Sanji, to the incredible sets, everything was brought together in a way meant to be as respectful as possible to the legacy of the series while balancing approachability to get newcomers on board the good ship One Piece without missing out on the many important messages and relationships at its core.

All episodes of the live-action One Piece are now streaming on Netflix.

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