Oda rejected Netflix's early One Piece script after budget cuts
Former showrunner Steve Maeda says Eiichiro Oda rejected an early, cheaper eight-episode version of Netflix's live-action adaptation.
Netflix's live-action One Piece adaptation reportedly went through a major rewrite after the streamer pushed for a cheaper, shorter first season. Former showrunner Steve Maeda says creator Eiichiro Oda rejected that version, telling the production team: “This is not what I signed up to do.” 1
Why the first *One Piece* plan changed
Speaking on the Trash Taste podcast, Maeda said the writing process lasted around two years and involved three different versions of the first season. The initial plan called for 10 episodes, but a new Netflix executive later asked the team to cut the production budget substantially and reduce the season to eight episodes. 1
Those demands forced the writers to restructure the story around a much tighter production. Maeda said he believed the revised scripts could still have worked as television, but he was concerned that the adaptation was moving further away from the storytelling of Oda's manga. The report says Oda objected to that direction and pushed Netflix to reconsider the approach. 1
The eventual first season premiered in August 2023 with Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy. Its reception led Netflix to renew the series shortly after launch. The second season, titled Into the Grand Line, premiered in March 2026, while a third season, The Battle of Alabasta, is expected in 2027. 1
What Oda's intervention tells us
The story is a useful reminder that creator involvement can matter most before cameras roll. Netflix and the production team were not simply polishing dialogue: they were deciding how much of the manga's structure, tone and world-building could survive a smaller budget and a shorter season. Oda's reported objection did not make the adaptation identical to the source, but it appears to have stopped the first season from drifting further away from it. 1
The later success of the live-action series gives that intervention extra weight. A faithful adaptation still needs to make practical television decisions, yet the central question is whether those changes preserve what makes the original work recognisable. In One Piece, that meant finding a version that could satisfy Netflix's production limits without losing the strange, optimistic adventure at the heart of Oda's manga.
Our opinion
The most important part of this account is not that Netflix considered eight episodes. It is that the budget decision apparently changed the identity of the adaptation. Cutting material can sharpen a season, but a cut that removes the relationships and eccentricity defining One Piece would save money by spending the thing viewers came to see. Oda's pushback sounds less like resistance to adaptation and more like a demand that the adaptation remain recognisably One Piece.