The show has also been casting for numerous roles and is seeing a bit of a shakeup behind the scenes

One Piece. (L to R) Morgan Davies as Koby, Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix © 2023

It’s been over six months since Netflix renewed One Piece for season 2 and the creative team has been quietly working on the new season. Pre-production is well underway, with shipbuilding in Cape Town, South Africa, and production is scheduled to begin this summer. Here’s the latest on One Piece season 2. 

Production is due to get underway around June 2024, according to an earlier ProductionWeekly Issue 1393 that was first posted in mid-March 2024. Their listings also suggest the show will continue to film in South Africa but also note Spain and Mexico for next season. However, we’ve been unable to verify those filming locations. We’ve since been told that production will begin in mid-June 2024.

We understand it’s currently set up for at least a seven-month and a bit shoot, which will take through late January 2025. That’s a roughly a similar length shoot to season 1, which filmed for six months and 22 days between January 31st, 2022, through August 22nd.

A representative for FilmAfrika declined to comment on the start date.

All filming dates are entirely subject to change, of course, and no episode count has been confirmed for the new season yet.

Two Showrunners for Season 2 of One Piece

Picture: Getty Images

Through updates to the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) and various LinkedIn profiles, we know that Steven Maeda will be ceding showrunning duties to two others for the forthcoming season 2. As stated on his Instagram profile and the WGA site, Maeda will remain an executive producer for the upcoming season.

Matt Owens, who served as co-showrunner in season 1 as well as an executive producer, will continue his role in season 2 alongside Joe Tracz (listed on WGA as Joseph E Tracz), who is just coming off the back of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Disney+. This is his third major Netflix Original project following A Series of Unfortunate Events and Dash & Lily. Tracz will also be an executive producer on the new season.

Owens recently gave a speech at the 2024 Writers Guild Award for Children’s Episodic, Long Form & Specials.

Also listed on the WGA page are the following:

Elizabeth A. Hunter as Co-Executive Producer
Ian Stokes as Co-Executive Producer
Ashley Wigfield as Co-Executive Producer
Tom Hyndman as Producer
Lindsay Gelfand as Co-Producer
Allison Weintraub as Co-Producer
Alex Regnery as Staff Writer

Casting Underway for Season 2 of One Piece

Casting has also been underway for the new season for the past few months. Multiple casting calls have been spotted across the internet for a project that’s believed to be One Piece season 2, labeled Project Renaissance. That fits the pattern of season 1, which went under the working title of Project Panda.

The only confirmed new characters for season 2 so far include Smoker, as teased in the season 1 post-credits scene, and Tony Tony Chopper from the season 2 announcement video posted by Eiichiro Oda himself.

Sadly, none of the contents of these casting calls can be publicly viewed, although we know they were looking for some actors between a wide range of different age ranges.

For a bit of fun, we put together a list of characters and actors we think should have roles in the forthcoming series.

We should hear more about One Piece in the months to come, but until then, you can spot glimpses of the writer’s room and more in the April Fools video, in which Jacob Romero answered none of your questions truthfully!

Are you looking forward to season 2 of One Piece on Netflix? Let us know in the comments down below.