One Piece co-showrunner Matt Owens addressed the growing fan interest regarding Jamie Lee Curtis’ potential casting as Dr. Kureha in the highly-anticipated second season of the Netflix fantasy series.
Three weeks ago on Instagram, the Everything Everywhere All at Once star surprised One Piece fans when she officially revealed her intention to lobby for the role of Dr. Kureha once the SAG-AFTRA strike comes to an end. Owens quickly responded to her post, promising that she no longer needs to lobby for the role because they will surely reach out to her. Speaking with Deadline, Owens shared that the creative team agrees with fans that Curtis would indeed be perfect for the role of Kureha. After learning that the A-lister was a fan of the anime, Owens admitted that the creative team started manifesting her casting in One Piece Season 2 by sending her a Kureha figure as a gift for winning her first Oscar.
"We have to try and get her [Curtis] on the show. What can we do? And Doctor Kureha, very luckily, is a character who is coming up in our story, and is someone who is perfect for Jamie Lee Curtis,” Owens recalled after the team found out about Curtis’ love for One Piece. "So we tried to start manifesting this dream of ours. After she won her Oscar, the writers' room sent her a figure of Doctor Kureha with a nice note that said, 'Congratulations on your statue, here’s another one to put next to it. Hope to speak to you soon.'"
Since the actors’ strike is still ongoing, Owens clarified that they haven’t had any official conversations with Curtis, but reiterated that he’s ready to meet with her after SAG-AFTRA receives their fair deal. “I will take her out to dinner, we’ll talk about it,” he said. “We’ll do all of it because at this point we’re writing for her — we really, really want her to come and play with us in Season 2.”
Pre-Production on One Piece Season 2 is Now Underway
After its series debut, the beloved mangaka Eiichiro Oda announced that the live-action One Piece series will officially be coming back for a second season. Owens recently confirmed that pre-production on the next installment has finally begun, as the Writers Guild of America ends its 148-day strike. Despite teasing Captain Smoker at the end of Season 1, Owens confirmed that "no one’s been cast yet" for Season 2. Should the Netflix adaptation continue to follow the flow of manga and anime, the next installment would begin with Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats pirates stopping by at Loguetown, where they’ll gather supplies for their long-awaited adventure to the Grand Line.
One Piece Season 2 will also spotlight Luffy’s leadership, which will be tested several times once the show begins to cover the Alabasta saga, where the crew will get to meet lots of new allies and enemies. The series is being led by Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackeny as Zoro, Taz Skyler as Sanji, and Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp. Apart from Captain Smoker and Kureha, fans are also eagerly waiting for the live-action debut of fan-favorite character Tony Tony Chopper.
All eight episodes of One Piece Season 1 are available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Deadline
