Director Marc Jobst had one big requirement when looking for the right cast of actors for Netflix’s One Piece live-action series.
One Piece proved that not all live-action adaptations have to fall into the gutter. The Netflix series had big shoes to fill. The Japanese manga and anime are full of charming storylines, detailed scenarios, and larger-than-life characters like the stretchy Luffy.
Like the original, One Piece focused on the start of Loofy’s (Iñaki Godoy) grand journey to become the King of Pirates, a dream he has had since he was a boy. But a pirate is only as good as his crew so, along the way, Luffy meets his future crew who will set sail to the Grand Line. There, they hope to fulfill their dreams and find the One Piece.
The Netflix series had to get a lot of things right when it came to the fight sequences. After all, Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu Arata) is the infamous pirate hunter and skilled swordsman.
Marc Jobst needed the One Piece cast to be action stars
While the One Piece director agreed that finding the right actors for the series was a challenge, he had his mind set on them being able to do physical stunt work.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jobst admitted finding the right actors to embody the unique original characters was tricky. “So there were nine months of casting all over the world. We saw hundreds of people, and we were looking for something really specific,” said Jobst
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From the get-go, Jobst knew the series success relied on who they would cast in the title roles of Luffy, Nami, Zoro, and the others. Because of his love for action and keeping to the source material, “I particularly wanted to shoot action for One Piece, I wanted actors who could not only act but could also be physical.”
Jobst went on to explain, “I wanted actors who could be fit and strong and carry a choreography so that I could shoot the action as fluidly as I wanted to be able to do it. That’s a big ask.” Despite using stunt doubles, actors like Arata brought to life the authenticity behind Zoro’s combat skills with and without a sword. Even Godoy was able to display Loofy’s more bendy and charismatic fighting style.
“But to me, an audience doesn’t fall in love with a set or a location. They fall in love with people. So if you can get that right and you can get actors to play characters that the audience cares about and believes are authentic and real and grounded and human, then you’ve got them forever,” said Jobst. It seems to have worked as One Piece broke free into the top spot in 84 countries.
You can read more about One Piece, like the movie that inspired the series creator here, and how the series differed from the anime here.
