Netflix’s One Piece is now in the works on Season 2 of the live-action series, and it turns out that new star Joe Manganiello talked with the original series creator Eiichiro Oda to flesh out his take on Sir Crocodile. One Piece‘s live action series was one of the best received anime to live-action adaptations among fans in recent memory, so it’s no wonder that there’s a great deal of anticipation and pressure on the coming season to hit those same heights. What’s going to help in this regard, of course, is all of the new additions to the expanded cast.
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Joe Manganiello has officially joined the cast of Netflix’s One Piece as Sir Crocodile in Season 2, and he is one of the first major villains in the franchise that sticks around for a long time. But for as long as we’ve seen Crocodile in action in both the One Piece anime and manga, there are many mysteries about what makes him tick as well. It’s something Manganiello was concerned with also as he mentioned in a recent interview with Parade about speaking with One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda to get more details on Crocodile’s past.
Joe Manganiello Talks His Approach to Crocodile
Manganiello noted how he was adjusting to the world of One Piece as he joins in the second season and was trying to get a feel for his character, “You know, I’m [Crocodile” missing an arm. And there’s other characters in the canon that are missing limbs. And they have things in common with why they’re missing those limbs. And so it made me think about, ‘Hmm, how did I lose this?’” With this question in mind, Manganiello spoke to Oda about it to get the creator’s thoughts on various things that haven’t been revealed about the character yet.
“There’s things that haven’t been explained about the character in either the manga or the anime, and I had the opportunity to talk to Oda about my thoughts on where his scar came from, how the loss of the limb happened and the hook was replaced, his new choice of profession as casino owner and mob boss rather than pirate, the Devil Fruit,” Manganiello continued. But also is fully aware that there is a world full of fans hoping to see Crocodile brought to life on screen in a way that’s faithful to the other versions.
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On Bringing Crocodile to Live-Action
“I mean, all of these things have appeared in two dimensions up till now,” Manganiello stated. “I have to breathe life into a three-dimensional character where all of these things have backstories. There’s a weight of that, you know, that the character carries around. While also tipping my hat to the existing fan base and paying respect to the 1300+ episodes of the cartoon that Japanese and fans all over the world love. So I’m paying my respects to them through my performance also. So choosing the right moment. And it’s just been a blast.”
For those who might have been worried, it’s clear that Manganiello is really trying to get a feel for who Crocodile is in a way that even One Piece itself has yet to have the time to explore. Because for as big of a world that Eiichiro Oda has at his disposal, there are so many characters like Crocodile who don’t get the time to fully flesh out what makes them really tick in terms of origin and unanswered questions. But this live-action take can change all of that.
