Netflix has a ton of movies and series on their plate and each is treated differently when it comes to the process of choosing the actors to play the roles in the title. For some, it was a breeze in selecting who would be in the project. However, for One Piece live-action, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that having Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy is "one of the most difficult casting challenges" that the streaming platform ever experienced.
During Netflix's Q3 2023 earnings interview, it was revealed that Netflix's One Piece live-action ranked #1 in 84 countries across the globe. The series broke a record that not even Stranger Things nor Wednesday could do. With so much effort put in to bring One-Piece into live-action on the streaming platform, there is one challenge that the production faced early on: the casting of Monkey D. Luffy is one of the most difficult castings them made in the entire history of the streaming platform.
In the same interview, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos also said:
Iñaki Godoy, who stars in the show, it was -- one of the most difficult casting challenges in the history of our original programming was who's gonna play Monkey D. Luffy. He was right under our nose, right in our talent family. We discovered him a couple of years ago and had him in this great show in our Mexican series called Who Killed Sara?, and then we were able to cast him in this, and now he's a global superstar. So this is that kind of thing you could do well, a thing that's hard to copy and gives us kind of competitive running room from our competitors, being able to do that more and more.
Iñaki Godoy is a 20-year-old Mexican actor who appeared in The Imperfects as Juan Ruiz, Who Killed Sara?, MexZombies, and more. The actor starred in various titles since he was 13. Godoy's involvement in One Piece as Monkey D. Luffy was announced in 2021.
Will there be One Piece Season 2?
Yes! The adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates will continue as Netflix officially renewed One Piece for Season 2 after the massive success of the series on Netflix having been #1 among 84 countries and with such a huge fanbase, the series is really likely having another run. The renewals of the series has been announced on the official One Piece Netflix social media official sites.
One Piece is a staple title in both manga and anime for more than two decades. Created by Eiichiro Oda, it follows the Straw Hat Pirates in search of the fabled treasure called the "One Piece" and they are led by Monkey D. Luffy, their captain, who dreams to be the "King of the Pirates."
All the episodes of One Piece are now available on Netflix.
