“One Piece” Showrunner Owens Steps Down

Matt Owens, the showrunner of Netflix‘s live-action “One Piece” series over its first two seasons, is stepping down.

In an Instagram post on Friday, Owens wrote that he is leaving the show to “focus on myself and my mental health” and comes while the show is in the midst of post-production on its second season.

Owens says in his post: “The last six years of working on the live action One Piece have been a life changing journey. A dream come true. It’s also been A LOT. So I’m stepping off the Going Merry. … Thank you so much to Oda, Shueisha, Tomorrow Studios, Netflix, and the entire cast and crew for your trust, partnership, and hard work.”

The move has been seen as a blow to the series as Owens has been with the live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga from the start and has been the one famous for being a hardcore fan of the property.

He developed the long-term plan for the series and served as co-showrunner on both seasons alongside Steven Maeda in season one and Joe Tracz in season two. Tracz will continue overseeing post-production on season two.

Owens also resisted attempts by Netflix to speed up the show in order to get to the more famous story arcs. With him gone, subsequent seasons may potentially truncate or skip over some events to get to major arcs like “Water 7” and “Summit War” quicker.

The first season of the show spent eight weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10, reaching the Top 10 in 93 countries and debuting at #1 in around half of those. It also logged a 95% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes from 10,000+ ratings, one of the highest-ever scores for a Netflix series.

Owens has also worked on series like “Agents of SHIELD” and “Luke Cage”. The second season of “One Piece” is expected to be released on Netflix in early 2026.

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