Not long ago, there was talk that the creators of the show One Piece were talking to Jamie Lee Curtis about her taking on the role of Dr Kureha in the second season of One Piece and those of us who like the actress were rubbing our hands with glee.
Now we have the grim news that Curtis will not be playing this role and the news comes from none other than the show’s producer Becky Clements.
In an interview with Deadline, she said this:
“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.”
In the same interview, she also hints that they have now given the role to someone else, but she doesn’t reveal who other than to say this:
“We have found an amazing person.”
She also talks a lot about the production of the series itself:
“This group here is incredible across the board, these actors, the production designers, the stunt team, the VFX team, the AD team alone, the things they have to balance. We typically prep and shoot multiple episodes at the same time so you often have two units going; the way you have to split your actors and your stunts teams.
We are building sets on stage, we’re also on location quite a bit. I think we’re between 900 and 1,200 people strong, and the level of creativity and professionalism in wardrobe, hair and makeup, Jaco Snyman, our prosthetics person, it’s inspiring. These people are some of the best I’ve ever worked with.
And this IP, Oda’s brain is so fertile and unique that everyone is invigorated every day of like, How are we going to do this, and folks who’ve been at this for awhile, you can just feel the almost childlike excitement about trying to pull it off.”
At the moment there is no release date for the second season of One Piece but it is expected to be released on Netflix sometime in 2025.