“One Piece,” the long-running Japanese pirate saga-turned-live-action hit, topped Netflix’s charts in 75 countries after it made its debut in August 2023. Its success has helped fuel the streamer’s broader push into anime, a genre that Netflix says now reaches more than half of its global audience.
On Tuesday, Netflix is announcing an expansion of the franchise. A third season of the live-action show, titled “One Piece: The Battle of Alabasta,” is set for 2027. The company is also developing a reboot of the original anime series — with creator Eiichiro Oda involved — as well as a Lego animated special due Sept. 29.
Netflix walked away from a deal with Warner Bros that would have dramatically expanded its library to include properties like “Harry Potter” and “Superman.” It’s now leaning into anime as a rich trove of stories and characters — having also recently unveiled a new slate of
anime projects at AnimeJapan, the world’s largest anime show, in March. They include the soccer show “Blue Lock,” the dark fantasy “Jujutsu Kaisen” and the supernatural comedy “Dandelion.”
“If Netflix’s goal is to entertain the world, it’s hard to entertain the world without anime,” said Jonathan Helfgot, Netflix’s vice president of marketing.
