Picture: Emily Rudd as Nami (left), Mackenyu as Zoro (centre) and Iñaki Godoy as Luffy (right) in One Piece – Tomorrow Studios
It’s worth noting at this early stage that Netflix has declined to comment when we directly asked about season 3 of One Piece, but given recent interviews and now a production listing, it certainly seems like One Piece is set to make its return. Let’s look at the evidence so far.
As you may know, Netflix handed One Piece a renewal order in September 2023, only a couple of weeks after the series debuted on Netflix. It took almost ten months for filming to get underway on the second season, which started on June 24th, 2024, and is expected to wrap in late January 2025.
Even before filming, there were rumblings that One Piece had been quietly renewed for a third season. In early June 2024, Braashad Mayweather, who played Patty in season 1, discussed in an interview with “What’s Popping” that filming was to get underway for seasons two and three.
“We’ll see if they flash back to its because they’re filming two seasons – season two and three – back to back starting soon. So we’ll see what happens.”
At the time, Netflix denied any speculation or reports that season 3 would be filmed in conjunction with season 2.
Rumors remained quiet until late November 2024, when the YouTuber CeralKillerz attended the Vienna Comic-Con, which was where we gleamed the information that Netflix was aiming for a Christmas 2025 release for the second season. Furthermore, actor Vincent Regan also speculated about the future of the show. Here’s the full quote:
“I’ve come back from South Africa now. I’ve filmed season 2, everything my character is doing in season 2 is finished, and now they are finishing in about a month, I think they’ll finish filming. So I think the show will be ready for Netflix before Christmas next year. I hope. And I guess they’ll start filming season 3 pretty soon, and I think they are doing- I think it’s called the Alabasta story arc. I think it’s going to take two seasons. What I’ve seen of the designs, drawings, and when I was there there was some really fun stuff being shot there at the moment.”
Fans who are part of Mackenyu’s paid fan club have also said that the actor has hinted that he’ll be filming season 3 and a separate Japanese project late next year.
Pictured: EP Matt Owens, Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro in season 1 of One Piece. Photo: Netflix
Fuel has been added to the fire overnight with a new listing in ProductionWeekly stating that One Piece has been renewed for season 3, with production due to begin in Q1 2025. Their listing does contain a few errors, though, and it’s worth noting that ProductionWeekly often uses articles and other crowd-sourced methods to get its information in addition to having filming grids unavailable to the public.
Given a show’s budget like this (which is reportedly upwards of $18 million an episode), it makes sense to keep things rolling. Filming multiple seasons back to back or as close as possible can help reduce cost and, more importantly, for you, the viewer, meaning that you’re not waiting exceptionally long times for new seasons to come back to our screens. We’ve seen in the past that the long waits for seasons, except in a few rare cases, often lead to people not bothering to watch new episodes. We’ve also seen with a lot of shows like The Diplomat, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a few others that Netflix is confident enough in a show’s ability to perform enough into the future to plan new seasons long in advance.
Of course, there’s ample opportunity between now and next Christmas to announce that One Piece season 3 is filming with some speculating that Jump Festa (which takes place in late December) would be the place to do so.
Where would One Piece season 3 go?
Given the confirmation that season 2 will end after the Drum Island Arc, the entirety of the third season is expected to cover the events of the Alabasta Arc. This will see Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates voyage to the land of Alabasta, where Mr. 0, aka the pirate warlord Crocodile and leader of Baroque Works, has secretly orchestrated the nation’s famine and civil war. It will be up to the Straw Hats to take down Crocodile and Baroque Works, stop the civil war, and restore the king to his rightful place as ruler of Alabasta.
We’d like to thank One Piece Netflix Fan and its fantastic community and CaptainSora on X for helping us with this article.
What do you think? Will One Piece be coming back for season 3? Let us know in the comments down below.
Netflix Synopsis: "With his straw hat and ragtag crew, young pirate Monkey D. Luffy goes on an epic voyage for treasure in this live-action adaptation of the popular manga."
