What Does One Piece Have Planned After Wano?

Warning! Major spoilers for One Piece’s manga to follow! The newest chapter of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece makes some massive changes that hint that Wano Country is even bigger than fans might have realized at first. As the climax of the arc continues with the final battles on Onigashima being settled one after the other, there have been some massive seeds planted for the future. While this war could have been the climactic finale of any other series as it’s the result of several years and arcs worth of planning, it’s also becoming increasingly clear that it’s just setting the stage for something even bigger to come.  

The newest chapter of the series takes this one step further by not only confirming the defeat of one of the Emperors, Big Mom, but sees her lamenting the fact that she was so close to the One Piece treasure in her final moments. With Luffy now battling Kaido on the top of the Skull Dome, he will likely be defeating Kaido at the end of the day. This would mark two massive victories for the Worst Generation, and two major holes into the current power dynamic of the rest of the seas. This is even before we get an update on what’s going on in the rest of the sea. 

When we were last updated on the outside seas, the end of the Reverie resulted in the World Government making a vie for power and removing the Seven Warlords program while attempting to take them all down.  We have yet to see the results of this struggle, but now it’s clear that the military is actively working towards gaining control of the seas from themselves. The CP0 members have been monitoring the events of the Wano fights closely, so it’s only a matter of time before the government figures out that two Emperors have been defeated. 

This will leave a massive power vacuum that the military will try and take advantage of, but at the same time there are the final two Emperors as well (three if you count Luffy being honored as the “Fifth Emperor” following Whole Cake Island). We have already seen Shanks making some kind of moves in connection with the government at the end of the Reverie (and will hopefully get more clues during One Piece: Red), and there are all sorts of mysteries about what Teech has been up to this entire time. Not only that, but Urouge of the Worst Generation has yet to be integrated into the story fully. 

Luffy beating Kaido could end up making him a fully accepted Emperor, and there’s a chance that Kid and Law could be treated the same as well. This isn’t even factoring in what opening Wano’s borders will actually mean for the future, and what kind of important clues the end of the battle will leave for the full journey to Laugh Tale. The government’s made a play for Nico Robin, so that means they’re closer that ever before. That means when this is all over, it’s going to be a mad dash to the end. Could we finally be in the endgame? 

What do you think? What do you want to see happen in One Piece after Wano County ends? What will the future look like for Luffy and all of his allies? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!