A new One Piece film project is in the works, according to the Shonen Jump News Unofficial Twitter account.
The account’s claims were later verified when the official One Piece Twitter account announced the film on Saturday. The project will be titled One Piece Film: Red and is set to release on August 6th, 2022.
The information leaked from a note written by series creator Eiichiro Oda, who is set to supervise the project himself. The movie will be directed by industry veteran Goro Taniguchi, while Kuroiwa Tsutomu will return as scriptwriter.
Taniguchi directed the 1998 OVA, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzack and is most known for his work on the Gundam franchise as well as Code Geass. Oda claims that Taniguchi was “the first person to ever animate Luffy,” in his note. This will be Taniguchi’s first project in the franchise after an over twenty-year absence.
Tsutomu has worked on the screenplay for 2016s One Piece Film: Gold and the Heart of Gold TV special tie-in. He has also worked on Gantz: O and the 2014 live-action Black Butler film. Tsutomu has also worked extensively on various TV dramas and has penned a handful of feature-length films.
Though nothing has been confirmed, rumor has it that Shanks will take on a lead role in the upcoming project. Fans have pointed to the scratch markings on the film’s teaser title card as a nod to Shanks’ trademark facial scars. The seldom-seem leader of the Red Hair Pirates is one of the series’ most recognizable characters but has played a supporting role over the course of the narrative so far.
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga series debuted in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997. The story of Monkey D. Luffy and co’s quest to find the eponymous One Piece has inspired a myriad of related media, including games, films, and an equally long-running anime adaptation.
Viz Media publishes the manga in English, while the anime is streamed on Funimation and Crunchyroll. Netflix recently revealed the cast for their upcoming live-action adaptation of the series, which does not yet have a release date set.
Source: Twitter