The time has come to set sail again with our favorite wholesome pirates. The Straw Hat Pirates are back in action for live-action One Piece season two, and they’re off on bigger, wilder, and more dangerous adventures than ever before. And that means a whole heck of a lot of character growth awaits our favorite crew this season. To explore the ins and outs of One Piece season two’s adventures, Nerdist was excited to sit down with the Straw Hat Pirates themselves, Iñaki Godoy (“Monkey D. Luffy”), Mackenyu (“Roronoa Zoro”), Emily Rudd (“Nami”), Jacob Romero (“Usopp”), and Taz Skylar (“Sanji”) to discuss all the brand new adventures. From Zoro and Sanji’s complex relationship to Usopp’s incredible evolution to what’s new with Luffy, check out our full interview below.
Nerdist: Iñaki, I thought your performance as Luffy was perfect in One Piece season one. Coming back for season two, in what ways has Luffy changed, and what did you want to keep the same about him?
Iñaki Godoy: What ways has Luffy changed? I think that everything that made Luffy, Luffy in One Piece season one, is still very present in season two, but I think this time around we get more time of Luffy just doing crazy stuff, which I think is very exciting. Luffy is the type of character who just gets people into trouble; he’s stubborn, and he will always follow his gut, no matter what. And I think we get a lot of that side of Luffy in this season, which I’m very excited for. And another thing, I think coming into One Piece season one, I was new to the source material, and I was also still quite young. And I think in One Piece season two, I just had so much more confidence in my knowledge of the source material, in what I wanted to bring to the table, and also just in me. And I think that’s also going to show on screen. I think I’m excited for people to see my performance of Luffy and enjoy it.
Taz and Mackenyu, Zoro and Sanji’s (mostly) good-natured banter in One Piece season one was one of my favorite parts of the live-action. How can we expect to see that evolve in season two?
Mackenyu: We actually take on something we’ve never taken on before, a gigantic dinosaur. We kill it together. And that was pretty exciting.
Taz Skylar: I think there’s a lot of symbolism in the way that they constantly bicker, but at the same time have the utmost absolute respect for each other. And they do. And they also secretly do have love for each other. And I think you see that in the show.
[Mackenyu makes a face and shakes his head, Skylar laughs.] Yeah. Maybe you have to look real hard and see the love bit.
Emily Rudd: If you squint, you see it.
Skylar: I see it when I watch it.
And Taz, one of the most incredible moments in season two was when the live-action kind of confirmed a popular One Piece anime fan theory that Sanji’s extreme reaction to Nami’s illness stems from his history with his mother. What did it mean to canonize that for the character?
Skylar: It’s so rare as an actor that you get to do a page and a half of text. Or I think it’s so rare that you get trusted with a page and a half of text that is not interrupted at all by any flashbacks, visual aids, or anything but your ability to talk at another human being with genuine intention. So I definitely felt a lot of pressure, like, “Damn, don’t make this minute and a half the most boring part of the show, bro.” But I don’t know, it was really special to be able to look into Emily [Rudd]’s eyes and say the speech and have her look at me with love in her eyes and understanding. And we also shot that scene on my birthday, and my mom was in the tent watching scenes.
Rudd: And you used your mom’s accent!
Skylar: I used my mom’s voice. I’m so glad you remember. Yeah, there’s this bit where Sanji references his mother, and there’s this bit where he quotes his mother, and I used my mother’s voice and accent to quote that line. It will forever sound like my mom.
And have you talked at all about how Sanji’s kind of other backstory manifests in the world of the live-action One Piece?
Skylar: Well, I think in our live-action One Piece, the way that Sanji is, his relationship with women, which is much less, I’d say much less romanticized, much more like a care-based thing. My justification for it was always that I think that it makes complete sense because women were the only people who were good to him when he was growing up. Every man in his life was abusive, was aggressive, but his sister and his mother were the two people that gave him love, gave him care, gave him support. So it makes absolute sense that anytime he’s around a woman of any type, he tries to do his best to give the same kind of support back.
Jacob, I feel Usopp has an incredible journey of growth in season two of One Piece. What do you think really drives this for him, and what are the biggest shifts in his character?
Oh, man. I mean, Little Garden’s obviously a huge moment, getting to meet Brogy, the Giants of Elbaph. Obviously, the journey from being completely terrified and fully convinced that I’m about to get stewed, and then going to having Brogy just immediately believe and fall into, like, “Oh yeah, of course, you must be a Brave Warrior. I can tell you’re a Brave Warrior.” And then even deeper for Brogy to be like, “No, I know you’re afraid. I know you’re afraid. And I would never trust a warrior who claimed not to be afraid of death.” And that was a huge moment, that the fear of death is also something that legitimizes Usopp as a brave warrior. So that was huge. That was awesome. And also gives him a place, a destination like, “I want to go to Elbaph. I think I’d like it there.” So yeah, it was great.
One Piece season two is now streaming on Netflix. You can read our full One Piece season two review here.
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Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She is a huge One Piece fan and has been inspired to dream her dreams because of the show.