When Monkey D. Luffy started the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece, his first recruit was Roronoa Zoro, who practices the Three Sword Style and is determined to become the world’s best swordsman. Mackenyu plays Zoro in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga, and he shared the big goal he wanted to accomplish for his character in One Piece Season 2. While that’s all well and good, I’m more astounded by the Information he casually dropped during this same interview.
Get Ready For A More Badass Zoro in One Piece Season 2
Several weeks after it was announced that One Piece had finished filming its second season, a Crunchyroll interview with Mackenyu had dropped, and one of the questions the actor was asked is what it was like bringing Zoro to life again for this next batch of episodes. He answered:
The first season I was trying to find how to bring Zoro to life. That was my main goal for season one. But for season two, the goal was to make him a lot deadlier and cooler, just level this badass character up.
With One Piece Season 2 adapting the Loguetown, Reverse Mountain (Twin Cape), Whiskey Peak, Little Garden and Drum Island storylines from the manga/anime, there’s definitely won’t be any shortage of moments for Mackenyu’s Roronoa Zoro to look more badass. What specifically comes to mind (and I’ll issue a spoiler warning for anyone who only watches the live-action show and wants to go into Season 2 fresh) is when Zoro takes on all those Baroque Works operatives during Whiskey Peak by himself. We’ll also likely seem him training under frigid temperatures during Drum Island, so yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing Zoro up his game in Season 2.
Apparently One Piece Season 3 Is A Go
At the time of this writing, Netflix hasn’t announced One Piece Season 3, which is frustrating since Season 2 stops just short of reaching the epic Alabasta arc. However, according to Mackenyu, a third season is already a done deal, because he said this when asked if he had a message to give to fans who are waiting for his next project:
The next project is going to be One Piece Season 2. We do have projects lined up for this year before we shoot Season 3 of One Piece, but I can’t tell you anything about that, so it’s not going to be fun for y’all.
Obviously we can’t consider One Piece Season 3 an officially done deal until the powers-that-be at Netflix say something, but for one of the lead actors of the show to say something isn’t insignificant. Frankly, I was hoping that Season 3’s fate has already been decided since it’s looking less likely that Season 2 will premiere on the 2025 TV schedule. The long wait is unfortunate, but at least Season 3 can start being put together sooner rather than having to wait until after Season 2’s release. That way, there would be a much quicker turnaround compared to the gap between Seasons 1 and 2.
For now though, there’s nothing to stop you from firing up both One Piece Season 1 with your Netflix subscription. Also remember that Netflix will also be home to The One Piece, the remake the original anime series, which can also be streamed on the platform.
