Doctor Who helped director Emma Sullivan secure One Piece job

"I guess I was in the running for it because I had done Doctor Who and The Watch, so I had done IP that's fantasy before," she told Collider.

"But also, I had worked in Cape Town with a film in Africa, as well, which is where we shot it. So that brought me to it."

Sullivan added that although she was not previously familiar with One Piece, a conversation with her son convinced her that the new series was going to be a big deal.

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• One Piece creator asked for changes to Netflix live-action series
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"I said, 'Oh, there's a show about a rubber pirate…' and he was like, 'One Piece?'" she explained. "And that's when I realised how big One Piece was.

"That's when I thought, 'Oh, I’ve got to be really careful here.'"

Sullivan previously explained to RadioTimes.com that original creator Eiichiro Oda had requested some changes during production on the live-action series.

"You want them [the fans] to be happy, you know, but I think the only way we can do that is to make Oda happy," she said. "When he saw stuff that he didn't like, we redid it.

"So he's the leader really, and I think if Oda says he's happy with it, then the fans will be happy. But you know, we just hope we did our best."

One Piece will be available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 31st August 2023. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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