One Piece Changes Format In New 2-Part Release Now Streaming On Netflix

Published Sep 29, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT

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Netflix’s live-action One Piece has been a huge success for the streamer, turning Eiichiro Oda’s enormous pirate saga into one of its biggest ongoing blockbuster TV show. However, the ambitious live-action series is only one part of Netflix’s plans for One Piece. A completely new anime adaptation, titled The One Piece, is also due in 2027. For Netflix, One Piece isn’t just one show, it’s a fully-fledged streaming franchise.

What’s more, One Piece has potential for appeal that stretches far beyond the existing manga fans The One Piece will cater to and the broad subscriber base Netflix has targeted with its live-action adaptation. Luffy’s colorful adventures, Eiichiro Oda’s eccentric characters, and the thematic emphasis on friendship also have obvious appeal to younger viewers. That is precisely the audience Netflix’s newly released LEGO One Piece aims to hit. It brings the Straw Hats back into animation, but in a form instantly recognizable to kids around the world.

Premiering on the platform on September 29, LEGO One Piece is a two-part animated special retelling events from the first two seasons of Netflix’s live-action series, with each episode running around 30 minutes. However, its real genius is not simply rebuilding Luffy’s adventures with LEGO bricks. By reframing the narrative through a key character’s perspective, LEGO One Piece becomes a hilarious on-ramp to Netflix’s main live-action series and, by extension, the much bigger One Piece universe beyond it.

LEGO One Piece Serves As An Animated Retelling Of Seasons 1 & 2

LEGO One Piece essentially compresses the two seasons of the live-action Netflix show into two animated episodes, covering the Straw Hats’ adventures across the East Blue and into the Grand Line. The project was developed by showrunner Tom Hyndman, who was perfectly positioned to oversee Luffy’s transition from live-action to plastic bricks thanks to already working on both seasons of the main show (via Animation Magazine):

“I got hired on the first season of the live-action show and continued to work on the show for the second season. This LEGO opportunity came up while they were shooting Season 2. I had worked in animation before, and so I think they came to me as somebody who had experience in this. So, honestly, it kind of just fell into my lap, which was fantastic.“

As Hyndman realized early on, the key to LEGO One Piece’s success was ensuring the special wasn't simply the same story with different visuals. Deeper changes were going to be necessary if the show was going to appeal to a younger audience. The solution came from making Usopp (Jacob Romero) the narrator, with the events framed as him recounting the crew’s previous adventures to Chopper (Mikaela Hoover). Having the story told from Usopp’s notoriously unreliable perspective was the perfect way not only to maximize the humor of the story, but to ensure the LEGO One Piece narrative was distinct:

“The big moment for us was determining that the narrator was going to be Usopp. We definitely wanted to find a way to differentiate ourselves and not make it just a retread of the first two seasons. Once we had that figured out, we were off to the races.”

Hyndman recognized that Usopp was the perfect character for the job because embellishment is fundamental to his personality. The important events can remain intact while his questionable recollection justifies the special becoming considerably more chaotic and suited to the medium of an animated LEGO story:

“Usopp is a character who has an interesting relationship with the truth. That made it fun to keep the core themes and story moments. And then figure out how to surround those with the craziness and frenetic energy of LEGO!”

That freedom was expanded by Atomic Cartoons’ animation team and director Chelsea Ker, who helped transform Hyndman’s original script so it perfectly fitted the exaggerated physical comedy audiences expect from anything with the LEGO name attached:

“I was the only writer, there were probably about 50 people at Atomic working on the animation. It was really great because most of them were big fans of One Piece, and so they were really going above and beyond to kind of make it pop and figure out new funny ways that made sense within the world, but were kind of amped up into the LEGO world. Our director Chelsea Ker did an amazing job of figuring a lot of that stuff and making things move the right way. There were definitely a lot of changes that would happen a little later in the process and she took it all in stride and made it happen, and the whole project is better for her having worked on it, for sure.”

All in all, Netflix’s LEGO One Piece strikes a perfect balance. It’s animated by a team that understands why the various LEGO movies and TV shows are so popular with younger viewers, with a story crafted by a creative who has a solid handle on the world of Netflix’s One Piece.

One Piece's New Animated Special Features The Return Of Netflix's Live-Action Cast

Recreating One Piece in LEGO already gives Netflix a clever way to introduce Luffy’s story to younger viewers. However, LEGO One Piece strengthens that connection by using the actors from the live-action series. Iñaki Godoy returns as Luffy, alongside Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero as Usopp, Taz Skylar as Sanji, and Mikaela Hoover as Chopper.

For Tom Hyndman, recasting the One Piece characters for the LEGO version wasn't an option. The actors already understood their characters, allowing their performances to be exaggerated for LEGO animation without losing the personalities that are already making Netflix’s live-action Straw Hats beloved (via Mama's Geekly):

“It wasn’t really a decision; it was kind of like, “It has to be this”. Thankfully, we figured everything out, and they were so excited to be in a LEGO thing. They’re all LEGO pieces now. It made everything easier because we didn’t have to spend time finding the character with them. They’ve lived the character for like five years. There were certain little tweaks to make it more LEGO, like taking the animation to a 15 instead of a 10, but they found that quickly. They knew the characters so well that if someone suggested Nami say something different, I knew they knew better than me.”

However, reassembling the Netlflix One Piece cast for the LEGO adaptation came with challenges. Recording took place between seasons 2 and 3 of the live-action show. This meant that actors were scattered around the world, leading to LEGO One Piece having a surprisingly complicated international recording process.

“We did it partially between season two and three, plus some pickups right at the beginning of shooting season three. Someone was in Spain, someone in South Africa, someone in Mexico, someone in New York, so there was a lot of juggling time zones. It was a lot of early days for the California people, but we made it work. I even went to South Africa for four days to shoot live-action stuff and record with Iñaki for a couple of hours.”

This was a lot of effort on Hyndman’s part, but it was worth it. The shared cast gives the LEGO One Piece episodes a direct connection to the live-action series rather than making it feel like an unrelated spinoff. Younger viewers can meet these versions of the Straw Hats in an energetic two-part LEGO adventure, then find those same voices and characters waiting when they graduate to Netflix’s One Piece.

Cast

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  Iñaki Godoy

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Emily Rudd

  Nami (voice)

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  Mackenyu

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)

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  Jacob Gibson

  Usopp (voice)