For quite some time, not only have One Piece fans rallied for Jamie Lee Curtis to be a part of the anime franchise but the Halloween star has leveraged for the exact same thing. Thanks to Netflix’s live-action series gaining enough success to warrant a second season, many fans believed that Curtis was a shoo-in to take on the role of Dr. Kureha, the doctor of Drum Island who also watched over Tony Tony Chopper. In a recent interview, executive producer Becky Clements broke down Curtis’ status when it comes to the role while also hinting at the current stage of casting for the Drum Island doctor.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The executive producer responsible for Netflix’s live-action Straw Hat Pirates started things off with bad news. Due to scheduling conflicts, Jamie Lee Curtis was unable to take on the role of Kureha as Clements explains, “She loves the show. She has too many films and TV shows that she’s going into production on so our production dates aren’t going to work. She definitely wanted to do it but she’s got deals in first position, and it just became complicated.”
Who Will Be Kureha?
While fans might be disappointed to hear that Curtis is no longer up for the role, Clements hinted at the idea that Kureha has already been cast. Becky stated this when it came to the live-action anime doctor, “We have found an amazing person.”
Clements didn’t just talk about Kureha however as she also mentioned the plans to have the series run for “six seasons”. When asked about One Piece’s future plans, Clements seemed confident that both herself and the showrunners had plans in mind for the Straw Hat Pirates’ future, “We have those plans. Matt Owens has it in his head, it’s just a matter of our partners who’ve been amazing, wanting to keep moving forward, but we are creatively prepared, I’ll say that.”
Clements also dove deeper into the roles of the showrunners while also confirming that One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda was once again hard at work on the live-action series, “[Showrunner] Matt [Owens], and Joe Tracz, who’s our new co-showrunner, are great partners, very aligned in all aspects of the series. They have it all mapped out, and Oda has been very involved again this season, so that’s been great.”
