At the height of the excitement surrounding One Piece Day ’25, Netflix’s live-action One Piece series recently shared a brand new trailer for the series’ highly anticipated second season. It’s been two years since the live-action series was released, with the adaptation surprisingly receiving nothing but love from fans who have been very excited for Season 2. That said, along with the excitement, this new trailer has also stirred up quite a bit of drama and controversy, and it all has to do with the casting for Princess Vivi in the live-action.
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The new Netflix live-action One Piece trailer has finally given fans their first glimpse at Season 2. This includes key locations such as Logue Town, Reverse Mountain, and Whiskey Peak, as well as beloved characters like Captain Smoker, Nico Robin, Laboon, and Princess Vivi. While reactions to most of these new faces have been positive, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Vivi, whose casting has sparked a very heated debate among fans. Charithra Chandran, who has been cast as Vivi, has sadly been at the center of this controversy, and her co-star Emily Rudd, who plays the Straw Hats’ navigator Nami, just joined the conversation, slamming down on the hate.
Emily Rudd Speaks Out Against Hate Towards Charithra Chandran’s Casting as Vivi
While there were a few fans who were on the fence when Charithra Chandran was first revealed to have been cast as Vivi in the One Piece live-action, the new trailer for Season 2 has blown the debate surrounding Vivi’s casting to a whole new level. The criticism surrounding the casting has been quite vicious this time around, crossing the line into unfair hatred directed towards Chandran, with many fans even denouncing the once-loved adaptation.
Amidst the growing controversy, many of Chandran’s One Piece co-stars have come out in her defense, including Rob Colletti, who plays Wapol, who openly stated that Chandran had been hand-picked by One Piece’s creator, Eiichiro Oda, for the role. Emily Rudd also recently joined the conversation on X under a post by @pewpiece, providing some clarity on the situation and staunchly defending Chandran against the hate. In one of her replies, Rudd said, “The intention is to flag that hatred directed toward a specific person for simply doing a job (and job well done at that) is unacceptable,” which quite accurately sums up the situation and the hate that Chandran has been unfairly subjected to.
It’s Too Soon to Judge One Piece’s Live-Action Vivi
It would have maybe been justifiable if the criticism was about Vivi’s costume design in the live-action or the fact that she sports a slightly different hair color. However, all of the hate is solely focused on the fact that the actor cast to play Vivi isn’t white but a person of color, which is simply unfair to Chandran, not to mention racist. As Rob Colletti also pointed out in his recent statement, the kingdom of Alabasta is highly inspired by the Middle East and North Africa, which is why it makes sense to cast a person of color.
The live-action series does not need to be a one-for-one remake of the original anime, and if that bothered fans, then there should have been complaints about why Usopp doesn’t have a long nose or why Iñaki Godoy’s hair is curly instead of straight and spiky like Luffy’s. Many fans have also cast doubt on the claim that Oda chose Chandran to play Vivi, but even if he did not directly, he most definitely gave his approval. Eiichiro Oda has been heavily involved in the production of the live-action series ever since Season 1, even visiting Cape Town during the filming of Season 2.
Overall, while these hurtful and hateful comments come from a very small portion of the One Piece fandom, it’s unfortunate that any of the series’ fans would take to sending hate to the actor at all, especially for a character as precious and beloved as Vivi. You can bet that Luffy and Nami certainly wouldn’t stand for Vivi being treated this way, and in that sense, Emily Rudd very much embodied Nami in standing up for Charithra Chandran.
Most importantly, Vivi’s appearance in the latest trailer only consists of a few fleeting seconds. Yet, many of these fans have already made up their minds before even seeing Chandran’s performance as Vivi in full, a hasty knee-jerk response to a very small amount of footage, especially since Chandran has proven to be an excellent actor. Her role as Edwina Sharma in Season 2 of Bridgerton is an excellent recent example of her phenomenal acting and just how lovable she’s going to be as Vivi in Netflix’s One Piece, and not giving her a chance just because of her ethnicity or skin color is a pointless hill to die on.
Source: @emilysteaparty on X.
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