Many have probably watched Netflix’s One Piece by now, as the series continuously takes the world by storm three weeks after its release. But before this show officially came to fruition, everyone behind the scenes sweated blood to perfect everything, resulting in some reshoots, including this one major scene that changed the whole thing.
Based on Eiichiro Oda’s manga of the same name, the live-action adaptation has seen huge success after its release on August 31. Despite being on the streamer for weeks, it remains at the No. 1 spot of the Top 10 TV shows, with about 48 million views. It has also been renewed for a second season. With this success, all the efforts the staff and crew poured in for its premiere season were surely worth it.
In an interview with The Direct, the show’s director of photography, Nicole Hirsh Whitaker, revealed that they completely reshot a major scene during the production. The sequence in question involved Captain Alvida and her ship, as seen in the first episode. According to her, it was originally filmed during the day but later shot at night.
In the script, Whitaker claimed it was meant to be filmed at night, but they made it during the day due to some production reasons. However, they still ended up sticking to the original plan, filming it at night again.
I mean, it works great, and they did it for story reasons, which I understood. They felt like it needed to be at night. Originally, it was night in the script. And then, for production reasons, it became day. And then they made it night again. So that was the only thing that I was kind of sad about.
What is Netflix’s One Piece first episode about?
Titled Romance Dawn, One Piece Episode 1 features the said Alvida sequence. Here, fans see Luffy’s incredible fighting skills and rubbery body for the first time when he fights Alvida and her pirates.
Whitaker revealed this was the first thing they shot, and it even took them a week to complete. She also admitted that it was a lot of work for Morgan Davies, Iñaki Godoy, and Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, who played the roles of Kobe, Luffy, and Alvida, respectively. Anyhow, some scenes filmed during the day were still used.
Though Whitaker felt sorry that there were materials unused for the show, it couldn’t be denied that the reshot had changed everything. It gave the viewers the first taste of the series' interesting fights and action-packed scenes that probably made them watch for more.
Netflix’s One Piece’s Reshot Scenes
If truth be told, this isn’t the only scene that the staff and crew had to reshoot for One Piece. Oda-sensei revealed in a letter that he forced Netflix to film some of the show’s sequences again as he felt they “weren’t good enough” to be seen by everyone around the world.
Not only that, but he also said that some lines didn’t feel like they were from Luffy from the manga. Despite that, after seeing how Godoy delivered those lines, he managed to own it, perfectly fitting his performance.
“So many things had to be done to keep things from looking too unnatural in live action,” he continued.
Evidently, all their hard work has paid off with the huge success One Piece is experiencing today. However, it may take a long while before One Piece Season 2 hits the small screens with the rigorous work needed.
