One Piece's Editor Explains How the Netflix Show Crafted Compelling Backstories

“I absolutely love the footage that Emma Sullivan shot with young Zoro and [present-day] Zoro climbing up the well,” Litman said of intercutting Zoro’s backstory with his perilous climb for survival.

“With the funeral, flashbacks of young Zoro and Kuina, and Zoro against the lake when he finds out Kuina has died—it was just next-level footage,” he shared of this specific shot featuring young Zoro (Maximilian Lee Piazza).

He continued, “That sequence of him finding out that she’s died, the funeral, and climbing up the well were all linear scenes and good, great stuff. Great material, with terrific performances. But we got a note that ‘this is taking some time... is there a way to intercut it similar to Kaya and Usopp?’

“What we found was that we could intercut it and found the spots to intercut with, but what Emma did was, she shot all this footage of present-day Zoro climbing up the well, especially close-ups,” Litman said. The editor praised Mackenyu’s performance as his character processes how his whole life has led him to Luffy and the Straw Hat Crew.

“[When] it was in the linear structure I wasn’t able to use all that footage because there just wasn’t a place for it,” Litman said. “But now that we were intercutting it, we were able to find in the edit places to really add to that. Add these close-ups to that scene, find interesting ways to cut in and out of the sections of present day and to the past, and give us those character beats and those moments to really land what is going on in present-day Zorro’s head. And it was just two sequences, and I’m absolutely thrilled with how they turned out.”

Litman was also brought in to finesse the pilot episode, when we see Gold Roger’s execution and the call for pirates to find his One Piece and take the King of the Pirates throne. “The pilot was a similar scenario,” he said. “It was shot in a certain way and directed a certain way. Terrific footage. But we got a note, ‘the Easter eggs... are they really landing?’ and they reshot the Easter eggs of certain characters.”

“We utilized some of the original footage and all that stuff was specifically designed to make sure we understood: who was Gold Roger, what is really happening to this world? You know, he’s sparking a pirate revolution. And we wanted to make sure that moment really landed.”

Litman also gave props to One Piece’s creator. “This is to the credit of Oda, these were the notes that he wanted to make sure really, really landed. We had a screening for the premiere of the pilot at the Santa Monica pier. I was sitting there in the back with some of my coworkers, and we were watching with the fans,” he said. “And when those moments hit, especially the Easter eggs, the fans just cheered—they were just absolutely loving what they were seeing. And we were like, ‘Wow! Mission accomplished.’”

One Piece is now streaming on Netflix.

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