Red-haired Shanks is one of the most important characters in Eiichiro Oda's One Piece. Introduced at the very beginning of the story, Shanks played quite an important role as he paved way for Luffy to set out on his journey to becoming the Pirate King. By entrusting his Straw Hat to Luffy, Shanks asked the young pirate to return it to him one day when he becomes a Great Pirate. Evidently, Shanks was always going to be quite a crucial character in the story moving forward, however, the majority of things about him remain unknown still.
Thankfully, One Piece entering its final saga means that more focus will now be thrown on Shanks. Furthermore, One Piece Film Red, which was recently released in Japan, also provided quite a lot of information about the red-haired pirate. As such, fans now have a lot of key information about Shanks and his fascinating past.
Note: This article contains spoilers for One Piece Film: Red
Shanks' Lineage
Quite a bit of Shanks' past was touched upon in One Piece Film Red. Uta, Shanks' daughter, plays an antagonistic role in the movie and using her powers, puts quite a big chunk of the population at risk. To stop her, the Gorosei plan on killing her, however, there is hesitation on their part due to her being a member of the Figarland family. Shanks, being her father, also belongs to the Figarland family. While it is unknown what exactly this family is, by the looks of it, it seems to be one with a royal bloodline. Potentially, the Figarland family could even be one of the many families of the Celestial Dragons.
Assuming that is the case, it would make sense for Shanks to enter Mariejois and meet with the Gorosei with ease, as seen after the Whole Cake Island arc. Shanks being a member of the Figarland family is also backed up by the fact that he was found by Roger and Rayleigh on God Valley, as revealed in One Piece Film Red. Following the conclusion of the battle, Roger and Rayleigh found a treasure chest with baby Shanks inside it. It was already established in the manga that the Celestial Dragons were present on God valley and Shanks could very well be one of them.
Shanks Establishing His Pirate Crew
Shanks proceeded to spend quite a lot of time on Roger's ship until the crew finally disbanded after reaching Laugh Tale and finding the One Piece. On the day of Roger's execution, Shanks was present at Loguetown – the town of the beginning and the end. Shedding tears for his captain as he died, Shanks set out on his own adventure and started his own pirate crew in the next few years. During this time, he recruited the likes of Ben Beckman from the East Blue and personally sought Yasopp, Usopp's father, from Syrup Village. Shortly after, his rivalry with Dracule Mihawk also began to grow.
Their battles supposedly echoed all over the Grand Line, as mentioned by Whitebeard himself. At some point, Shanks acquired great fame and made a great name for himself. Shortly after, he attacked a Government vessel that was carrying the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Fighting CP9 and successfully taking the Devil Fruit, Shanks then proceeded to head towards Foosha Village in the East Blue. He proceeded to set camp there for over a year and ended up meeting Luffy for the first time. Uta, Shanks' daughter, accompanied him to the East Blue and spent quite a lot of time with Luffy as well.
Shanks' Time With Luffy
The following year was spent by Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates peacefully in the East Blue. It is unknown why exactly Shanks came to this sea and, by the looks of it, it seems as if he was looking for the successor to Roger. That would also explain why Shanks specifically sought out the Gomu Gomu no Mi but didn't eat it himself after acquiring it. During his time there, he heard Luffy say the same words as Roger. The fact that the two shared the same dream made Shanks entrust everything to the next era. Luffy eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi shortly afterwards made him bet everything on him, in the hopes that Luffy would be the one to lead it.
One Piece Film Red also revealed quite a few intriguing bits of information about Shanks during his time in the East Blue when he saved Luffy. According to the movie, Shanks' bounty during this time was 1.04 billion berries, which is slightly less than Katakuri's current bounty, meaning Shanks was far from being a Great Pirate at this time. Six years later, he rose to the position of Yonko and his bounty increased to 4.089 billion berries. Since then, Shanks has remained to be one of the strongest people in the One Piece world and, currently, he might as well be the strongest.