One Piece EP Addresses That Major Finale Cameo: ‘You Could Read Into It…’
With the explosive success of One Piece, now streaming in its eight-episode entirety on Netflix, a second-season renewal (if not one for multiple seasons) is all but guaranteed. And the manga adaptation’s finale gave us a clear — or should we say smoky — hint about someone we can expect to see when the show inevitably returns.
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After defeating Arlong, liberating Coco Village and surviving their encounter with Garp, Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates end the season by sailing off into the sunset on the Going Merry, en route to the Grand Line. Luffy is riding high on the news that he finally has his own wanted poster, but we’re soon reminded that notoriety has its pitfalls.
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It seems that Luffy’s newfound fame has earned him another powerful new enemy, of whom we catch a quick glimpse at the end of the finale. A white-haired man is shown from behind as he burns a hole in Luffy’s poster using a lit cigar. Fans on social media are unanimously assuming this man to be Smoker, one of Luffy’s many well-known adversaries from the manga.
One Piece co-showrunner Steven Maeda can’t say much about this cameo — OK, he can’t say anything at all — but we still had to ask during a recent chat:
“I’m not allowed to say,” Maeda told TVLine ahead of the show’s drop on Netflix. “But you could read into it what you want to read into it. I think it’s important to tee up a little bit moving forward, especially with a series like this where there’s a really strong plot drive. I would leave that to the audience to figure out.”
One Piece diehards, how pumped are you to see Smoker’s formal debut in the show’s unofficial second season? Grade the finale and overall series in our polls below, then drop a comment with more of your thoughts.
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