'One Piece' Drops A Major Pirate King Teaser

The last chapter of One Piece set the Straw Hats on a bad path as it looked like Big Mom had finally won the day over the Straw Hats as the Thousand Sunny seemed to sink into the sea.

But after that is resolved in Chapter 901, the series of events that follow lead to a major tease of a possible Pirate King within the 11 Supernovas, much like Katakuri mentioned a few chapters back.

It looked like the Thousand Sunny was sunk, but it appears that Big Mom's army attacked a Sun Pirates ship as Wadatsumi carried them away in his mouth. But when the Charlotte Family stopped the Straw Hats once again, Jinbe asked to be left behind to help his former Sun Pirate comrades.

With Jinbe and the Sun Pirates' help the Straw Hats are able to get away, but while this is happening, a member of Big Mom's underworld circle Morgans (who writes for an economic newspaper) is seen celebrating their escape. When asked why he was in support of their escape, Morgans teases that "Straw Hat's one of the candidates after all...very soon from among the group known as the Worst Generation, a Pirate King will be born!"

While Oda has teased a new Pirate King would emerge from the Worst Generation, and the 11 Supernova Pirates (which include the likes of Luffy, Zoro, Bege, and Law) that lead it, this is the first time it has been put into an explicit tease. This could also tie into what Katakuri said after his fight with Luffy, in which he says Luffy can see the future after Luffy vows to come back for Big Mom.

But along with this tease, and Luffy telling Jinbe to meet them in Wano, fans sure can't see where the series will go from here. Especially with major threats like Kaidou and Blackbeard (who is also now a Pirate King candidate) still out there as well.

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 is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.