How Doctor Who Helped Manifest Netflix's One Piece

Netflix's One Piece live-action adaptation is days away from its premiere, and none of it would be possible without a certain Doctor Who director.

The upcoming One Piece series wouldn't have come to fruition if it weren't for BBC's Doctor Who, specifically one of the directors who worked on the sci-fi drama show -- Emma Sullivan.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece launched a franchise, consisting of manga, anime, films, video games, and, most recently, a television series, back in 1997 and has since become a cultural phenomenon with a huge fan base all over the world. When Netflix approached Oda regarding the potential live-action adaptation, the streaming platform understood what was at stake right away, which is why the people involved with the project needed to be selected carefully. That included the directors who would be responsible for bringing the first eight episodes of the Straw Hat Pirates' adventures to the screen. In an interview with Collider, Sullivan, one of the chosen four directors, spoke about how she joined the production.

Apparently, Sullivan was considered for the job thanks to two of her most recent projects -- Doctor Who and The Watch. She directed two of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor ventures in 2020, and she worked on three consecutive episodes of Simon Allen's The Watch in 2021. Both series have a long history and an enormous following -- after all, Doctor Who has been on air since 1963, and The Watch is a much-anticipated adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which first debuted in 1983.

With Sullivan's vast experience of collaborating on well-established fantasy franchises, she was up for leaving her mark on Netflix's One Piece as well, along with Marc Jobst, Tim Southam, and Josef Wladyka. "I guess I was in the running for it because I had done Doctor Who and The Watch, so I had done IP that's fantasy before, but also, I had worked in Cape Town with a film in Africa, as well, which is where we shot it. So that brought me to it," she elaborated.

However, Sullivan didn't know anything about One Piece's legacy status, and it was actually her son who made her realize what a huge deal this series would be. The director revealed, "I was new to it when they started asking me about this show, I wasn't familiar with it. But I found out through my son, and I said, 'Oh, there's a show about a rubber pirate…' and he was like, 'One Piece?' And that's when I realized how big 'One Piece' was. So that’s when I thought, 'Oh, I’ve got to be really careful here.'"

One Piece will be available for streaming on Netflix from Aug. 31, 2023.