Matt Owens Steps Down As ‘One Piece’ Co-Showrunner To Focus On Mental Health

Matt Owens, the main creative force behind Netflix’s One Piece, is leaving the live-action series, which wrapped production on Season 2 last month.

“The last six years working on the live-action One Piece have been a life-changing journey. A dream come true. It’s also been A LOT,” Owens wrote on Instagram. So I’m stepping off the Going Merry to take a break and focus on myself and my mental health.

Owens has served as executive producer and co-showrunner on both Seasons 1 and 2 and has shaped the creative vision for the acclaimed live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s beloved manga, including its long-term plan for future seasons. Joe Tracz, who joined in Season 2 as executive producer/co-showrunner, remains on the series and will shepherd the upcoming second season through post-production. Owens’ departure, which is effective immediately, is not expected to impact the show’s Season 3 renewal prospects.

The reasons for Owens’ exit are poignant given how the One Piece manga helped him through some dark times decades ago.

“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.

“I found it at a really dark and low point in my life but I also attribute it with helping me get out of it because One Piece is such a wonderful, positive, inspirational series,” Owens continued. “That’s what really galvanized me to, once I heard that someone was trying to make a live-action, to try and get involved because I owe this series a lot.”

An ambitious endeavor, One Piece combines lengthy, grueling shoots in South Africa and complex, visual effect-heavy post-production.

Season 1 of the action adventure spent 8 weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10, reaching the Top 10 in 93 countries and debuting at #1 in 46. It also logged a 95% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes from 10,000+ ratings, among the highest ever for a Netflix series.

One Piece, about Monkey D. Luffy who assembles a crew as he sets out to find the legendary fabled treasure, One Piece, and become King of the Pirates, stars Iñaki Godoy as Luffy, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanji.

The series is done in partnership with Shueisha and produced by Tomorrow Studios, an ITV Studios partner, and Netflix. Season 2 executive producers include showrunners Matt Owens & Joe Tracz, Oda, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements through Tomorrow Studios, Tetsu Fujimura, Chris Symes and Season 1 co-showrunner Steven Maeda.