Adaptations aren’t created equally. Some source material presents a taller task than others, and perhaps no story is more intimidating to adapt than One Piece. The long-running anime has produced over 1000 episodes across 20 seasons, which live-action needs to trim down substantially without leaving anything important behind.
So far, Seasons 1 and 2 have significantly abridged the anime, but kept the overall story intact. Season 3, however, may take a completely different approach.
We’re still about four months away from One Piece Season 2’s premiere, but casting announcements are already being made for Season 3. Tony Award-winning actor and playwright Cole Escola has been announced as Bon Clay, a flamboyant villain-turned-ally, while Cobra Kai and Blue Beetle star Xolo Maridueña will play Portgas D. Ace, a fan-favorite blood brother of Monkey D. Luffy.
These two announcements share one thing in common: both characters feature in the anime’s Alabasta arc. If every prominent casting announcement is tied to this arc, it’s possible that Season 3 may focus on it, rather than try to tear through swathes of story like Seasons 1 and 2.
The math backs that theory up. Season 1 covered the East Blue Saga through the Loguetown arc, which spanned about 45 anime episodes. Season 2 appears to be covering Loguetown through Drum Island, which is another 45 episodes. After that comes Alabasta, which covers 38 anime episodes alone. Unless the next arc, which covers the Sky Island of Skypeia, is awkwardly shoehorned in at the end, there’s not much room for any other storyline.
One Piece has always had an island-hopping format, and it seems that Season 2 of the Netflix series will embrace this as Luffy and his crew enter the Grand Line and visit several islands, each with its own quirks and adventures. But several straight seasons of rushing through storylines could get old, so spending an entire season in a single location after that would be a nice palate cleanser, and a chance to flesh out important new characters like Portgas. If you know, you know.
