Did 'One Piece' Just Tease Shanks is a [SPOILER]?

Eiichiro Oda has been shaking up the world of One Piece in a major way as the current Reverie arc is both reintroducing older characters and introducing more lore about the history of this world and how its politics work.

But one of the major mysteries is Red-Haired Shanks, whose appearance at the end of the latest chapter of the manga may signify an even greater bloodline for the elusive pirate.

In the latest chapter of the series, fans are re-introduced to the Five Elders, the "highest authority" in the world, inside of the Pangaea Castle Chambers of Authority. Shanks appears in front of them, and the Elders question what he wants badly enough to bring him to the chambers.

But a strange bit in their words may tease that Shanks may be related to the Celestial Dragons, which only enforces his ability to seemingly walk into the Elders' chamber without problem (even leading to the soldiers leaving the area). The Elders go on to say, "It is Reverie, given who you are, these politics are not for you" which implies that Shanks is "above" these politics.

To emphasize this further, they tell Shanks that "But, given who you are, we will give you the time of day." The "given who you are" in both of these statements carry a ton of weight as Shanks may be more than just one of the Emperors of the Sea. This kind of respect, and equal ground, implies Celestial Dragon ties as the Celestial Dragons are the only ones so far who seem to be able to do what they want outside of world laws.

This also puts another meaning behind Shanks' appearance at Marineford in which he asks them to stop the war. Sengoku then complies stating that it's because it's Shanks. If these powerful individuals bend to Shanks' whim, it might not be just because he's a respected pirate, but just may be a Celestial Dragon. But hopefully this mystery of Shanks' true lineage is solved in the chapters to come.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Eiichiro Oda also revealed some upcoming news for One Piece's future at Jump Festa 2018. Not only will the manga see Wano sooner rather than later, the next villain of the series is "one of the legends which lurks in the One Piece world. The greatest enemy ever for Straw Hats will hinder their way...Can you believe Marineford Summit War will look 'cute' compared to that?

The new live-action One Piece series also got some new information as it was revealed that the series will portray the Straw Hats' adventures from the very beginning, and will take place in the East Blue. One Piece's anime series is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.