In the One Piece anime, Sanji and Usopp have curly eyebrows and a long nose, respectively. However, the live action had decided to skip out on these famous features. Taz Skylar (Sanji) and Jacob Romero (Usopp) discussed these changes recently during the One Piece Live Action panel at Galaxycon San Jose this past weekend.
The reason the live action doesn’t have anime-like features is simple: It was a creative choice. Skylar discussed with One Piece showrunner/executive producer Matt Owens about foregoing the eyebrows due to them feeling out of place.
“I think it (the curly eyebrows) was discussed at a very early stage. I was like ‘Are we really going to put curly eyebrows on me?’ Skylar said. “It was just something about if I was the ONLY guy that had them… It’s the same thing with (Usopp’s) nose.”
“I’ll give you the nose energy, or if you put me in the nose, I would make it be so bad that you’d want to take the nose off me,” Romero added, laughing about how they should make Usopp wear toe shoes instead.
Honoring the Original One Piece
Although the One Piece live action didn’t keep the curly eyebrows or nose, Jeff laughed about how they still kept Buggy’s clown nose.
“I thought you (Skylar) meant my nose, and I was like ‘You know we used that, right?’” Jeff said.
“I know, we were laughing about it behind your back,” Skylar joked. “Then you walk on and I’m like ‘Nice nose, buddy.’”
Although these features didn’t make the cut, Romero said the cast and crew did what they could to capture the essence of the original work.
“I think it was pretty clear that we were trying to honor the fantasy of this world, but also present it in a way where it was grounded,” Romero said. “It’s a complete fantasy, but where we can, we try to make it feel real. We traded in the nose for a bigger smile.”
Season one of the One Piece live action is available to watch on Netflix. Season two is confirmed for 2026.
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