How Old Are The Stars Of Netflix's One Piece Series?

Age-appropriate casting can make or break a story. For instance, it's hard to believe that Paramount's "Grease" is about high school romances when Sonny LaTierri (Michael Tucci) looks like he's old enough to understand the subtle intricacies of a mortgage. And while Netflix's live-action adaptation of "One Piece," Eiichiro Oda's ongoing pirate adventure franchise, cast its main characters using the same broad chronological net, it doesn't necessarily look that way. Maybe that's down to the talent involved, or maybe that's down to how more recent generations simply appear younger for longer. Either way, here's how old the stars of the series are, alongside their character's ages. For their ages at the time of principal photography, simply subtract a year.

Breakout star Iñaki Godoy, the actor who portrays Monkey D. Luffy, is 20 years old now. By comparison, Luffy begins the manga, the anime, and presumably the live-action adaptation as a 17-year-old pirate hopeful. Emily Rudd, who portrays Nami, is 30 years old. In contrast, Nami is canonically 18. Mackenyu, who plays Roronoa Zoro, is 26 years old. Zoro, on the other hand, is 19. Jacob Gibson was cast as Usopp and is 27 years old, making him 10 years older than his 17-year-old anime and manga equivalent. Lastly, Taz Skylar, who plays Sanji, is 27 years old. Like Zoro, Sanji is supposed to be 19. That means Godoy is closest to his character's age, while Rudd is the main cast member with the most disparate age from their role.

From concept to creation, and from creation to release, Season 1 of Netflix's "One Piece" demanded approximately seven years of effort. Obviously, the cast was not connected to the project for all seven of those years, although such a time would have admittedly initially placed the better part of them at the same age as their onscreen personas. Should the development and release of "One Piece" Season 2 — which has yet to be officially announced but seems likely, given the positive public response — take even half as long as Season 1, Iñaki Godoy and his cohorts will find themselves quickly aging out of their roles.

Yes, "One Piece" is a long story, which means that any adaptation thereof would require talent to be in for the long haul. However, over half of the story's chronological runtime takes place while the main cast of characters are at the age at which they began the narrative. Around the halfway mark, there's a two-year time skip, which does allow the characters to age up a bit, but they're still young. And that pretty much accounts for over 1,000 episodes of anime and over 100 volumes of manga. All this is to say that Netflix should consider picking up the pace. Otherwise, Luffy's live-action counterpart will feature a grizzled gray beard, just like his grandpa, Vice Admiral Monkey. D. Garp (Vincent Regan).