Netflix’s One Piece: Mackenyu Breaks Down His Wild Audition for Zero

Netflix is riding high with the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it has another ace up its sleeve with the live-action take on the Grand Line with One Piece. Once the ratings were in for the live-action Straw Hat Pirates, a second season was quickly confirmed which will continue the story of Luffy and his crew. In a new interview, the actor who portray live-action Roronoa Zoro discusses the wild audition process that he underwent to join the Going Merry.

Mackenyu might have recently joined the Straw Hats for Netflix, but One Piece is far from the only live-action anime adaptation that the young actor has been a part of. Prior to joining Luffy on his quest, Mackenyu played the main part of Seiya in the Knights of The Zodiac live-action movie from Sony Pictures. The young actor also had essential roles in the live-action movies for Rurouni Kenshin, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Tokyo Ghoul, and Fullmetal Alchemist to name a few. With One Piece becoming a big hit for Netflix, the live-action Zoro might be traveling the Grand Line for quite some time should the streaming service want the entirety of the source material adapted. 

How Mackenyu Became Zoro

During a recent interview in Japan, Mackenyu revealed that he has always been a big fan of One Piece, but did not know that he was auditioning to be a part of the live-action cast originally, “I love it so much, but when the audition came, they didn’t tell me that it was for One Piece. They didn’t want it to be known that they were auditioning for One Piece. I had no idea it was for One Piece. The only thing I knew was that it was for a very big budget production.”

Surprisingly, Mackenyu revealed that he had turned down the role at first, not knowing he was auditioning for Zoro, “I declined the first time, but because there are too few Japanese actors who speak English, they invited me to audition again. I said if you tell me what exactly the audition is for, I can consider it. ‘One Piece‘ they said. Then I said if you tell me the character’s name, I’ll accept the audition. ‘Roronoa Zoro.’ ‘I’ll do it!’”

The young actor also revealed that he got the part thanks to Eiichiro Oda himself, who had wanted Zoro to be played by a Japanese actor. Should the live-action series continue to follow the course laid out by its source material, Zoro will have some big fights in season two.