Here's Why The Going Merry's Figurehead Is Different in Netflix's 'One Piece' Live-Action

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Even though the live-action adaptation of One Piece will certainly strive to stay true to its source material – the long-running manga and anime series – we’re bound to see some changes because not everything works when it is brought to flesh, bone and pirate ship wood format. In an interview with Collider’s Mike Thomas, series production designer Richard Bridgland revealed what changes were made in terms of ships – including the most important of all, the Going Merry.

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During the interview, Bridgland explained that one of the team’s objectives was to make the sets look as real as possible within the One Piece world. Even though some changes had to be made, the goal was for that change to still reflect the spirit of the manga, which in turn made Bridgland realize a curious element of the story’s ships’ figureheads:

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“It’s interesting, with all the figureheads of the ships, I couldn’t just copy them straight out of the manga and make them in real life, they would look kind of goofy. I had to create a credible real-life version of them. So, what was apparent to me from going into the manga was that all of these figureheads were actually kind of symbols for the spirit of that character.”

one-piece-netflix-inaki-godoy-1 — Image via Netflix

One Piece Ships Will Be a Wonder to Look At

We’ve already had a glimpse of the real-life Going Merry in trailers and promotional material for One Piece, and it’s pretty safe to say that the result was great. Now, it’s just a matter of checking out the entire series in order to see Luffy’s (Iñaki Godoy) ship from every angle possible and really understand how it ends up reflecting the protagonist’s personality.

Of course, fans will also want to keep their eyes peeled to see the modifications to other ships like the Baratie floating restaurant and Alvida’s (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino) ship, just to name a couple. However, just the fact that the ships were built in lifesize format for filming suggests that, at the very least, One Piece will be a wonder to look at.

Aside from Godoy and Isorelýs Paulino, the cast of One Piece also features Emily Rudd (Hunters), Mackenyu (Knights of the Zodiac), Jacob Romero (Greenleaf), Taz Skylar (The Lazarus Project) and Peter Gadiot (Yellowjackets). The show also had franchise creator Eiichiro Oda as an executive producer and overlooking every decision made for the adaptation.