'One Piece' creator saved Netflix adaptation from sinking: Here's how

When Netflix greenlit the live-action adaptation of One Piece, one of the most beloved manga series, a few hiccups emerged.

Initially, the streamer opted for 10 episodes for season one of a show whose anime version has over 1,000 episodes.

But the irritants snowballed into a crisis when a new executive at Netflix decided to slash the live-action budget in half, reducing the ten-episode season to just eight.

Given One Piece's strong fanbase, showrunner Steve Maeda said the major cut was a big worry; appointing a new executive forced writers to alter the story, driving the adaptation away from the original series.

"And we want you to do a version of it.' What I said was, 'The fans are not gonna like this. We can't afford now to do the things that we were sort of promised to do,'" he said on Trash Taste Podcast.

In the wake of the row, Eiichiro Oda, the original creator of the manga One Piece, stepped in.

After reading the revised scripts, Oda dug in his heels, demanding that Netflix redo the changes because, in his view, he never agreed to them in the first place.

"So Oda-san read it, did not like it, and told them so, and said, 'This is not what I signed up to.' As a result, to Netflix's credit, they said, 'Okay, too much in that direction."

After Oda disagreed, Netflix's executives had to reconsider the budget cut.

"Let us reconsider this, and we'll come back to you.' And then they came to us and said, 'Okay, we're going to give you guys the budget you need to do the version of the show that's much closer to the original source material.'"

That said, the second season of One Piece will arrive on Netflix on March 10.