According to Deadline, Matt Owens (Luke Cage) co-showrunner of Netflix’s live-action One Piece has announced that he is stepping down from the series. Owens took to Instagram and posted the news bout leaving stating he is leaving to “focus on myself and my mental health.”
“The last six years of working on the live action One Piece have been a life changing journey. A dream come true,” Owens wrote. “It’s also been A LOT. So I’m stepping off the Going Merry. … Thank you so much to Oda, Shueisha, Tomorrow Studios, Netflix, and the entire cast and crew for your trust, partnership, and hard work.”
One Piece series is the live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda (Romance Dawn) manga series and anime with the same name that has reached over 100 volumes and 1000 episodes.
As per Deadline, Owens has been on the series since it premièred 2023. He served as executive producer and co-showrunner for season one and the upcoming second season. He helped shape the creative vision in both seasons before stepping down. Owens leaving will not be expected to affect the series until its third installment. The departure of the series is sad as Owen stated that the manga series helped him through mental struggles.
“There was a period of time in my early 20s, I had just recently moved to Los Angeles; I was working on trying to get into the film and television business, and I was really depressed at this time,” he told Deadline in 2023. “I just wanted to go to work and go home and not really deal with people or be social or anything like that. So I thought, well, now’s a great time to try and get into One Piece because there are hundreds and hundreds of episodes and I’m not doing anything else.
Joe Tracz (Dash & Lily) will lead the upcoming second season through post-production. Tracz joined the series in the second season as executive producer and co-showrunner.
Below is the full Instagram post by Owens.