REPORT: One Piece Set Photos Show First Look at Live-Action Series’ Pirate Ships

New photos appear to show a first look at the One Piece live-action series' pirate ships.

The new images were taken by Twitter user @Risebito and reposted by One Piece fan account @OP_Netflix_Fan. According the description, the images were reportedly taken at South Africa's Cape Town Film Studios, where the new series is being filmed. While the pictures were taken from some distance away, they appear to show several tall-masted sailing ships in various stages of construction. The most complete ship bares a strong resemblance to the Miss Love Duck, the distinctively decorated pirate ship captained by "Iron Mace" Alvida, one of the first antagonistic pirate captains that Luffy encounters in his journey. The framework of a larger ship can also be seen; while it is still obviously in the early stages of construction, the shape and size of the vessel has led to speculation that it may be the flagship of the Kreig pirates' armada, the Dreadnaught Sabre.

The live-action One Piece was first announced in 2017. The series is being produced by Netflix and Tomorrow Studios, the production company behind the recent Cowboy Bebop live-action series. The series will star Go, Youth! and Who Killed Sara?'s Iñaki Godoy as the straw-hatted protagonist Monkey D. Luffy. Godoy will be joined by Boiling Point's Taz Skylar as the fighting chef Sanji and Sonny Chiba's son, Mackenyu (Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter, Chihayafuru, Pacific Rim: Uprising) as the swordsman Roronoa Zoro. Emily Rudd (Fear Street, Hunters) will portray the team's fashionable navigator, Nami and Jacob Romero Gibson (Greenleaf, All Rise) will play the role of Usopp. Steve Maeda (Lost, X-Files) and Matt Owens (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) will serve as the series' head writers and showrunners.

All anime to live-action adaptations are treated with a certain level of trepidation by fans, but Straw Hat Pirate devotees can rest a little easier knowing that One Piece's original creator, Eiichiro Oda, will serve as an executive producer for the live-action adaptation. Oda is also known for being heavily involved with the production of the anime adaptation of his manga, and it appears he will be similarly entrenched in Netflix's new reboot. The manga artist previously released a statement about the series, saying, "It'll take a bit more time to get this show done, but we'll continue to do our best to deliver a show that we're confident will be enjoyed by everyone around the world!"

Oda's One Piece was originally published over 24 years ago and is now the best selling manga series of all time, with about half-a-billion copies in circulation worldwide. The manga published both its 1000th chapter and its 100th collected volume in 2021, while the anime adaptation aired its 1000th episode. Despite the series' on-going massive popularity, both Oda and publisher Shueisha have teased that the series is finally nearing its conclusion.

Source: Twitter