SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers through the end of “One Piece” Season 2, now streaming on Netflix.
The Going Merry will be a little more crowded in Netflix’s “One Piece” Season 3, as the Straw Hat pirates have taken aboard two new crew members by the Season 2 finale, including one they previously saw as an enemy.
Following the reveal that Baroque Works agent Miss Wednesday (played by “Bridgerton” Season 2 star Charithra Chandran) is actually Princess Nefertari Vivi of the war-torn Alabasta, Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and his team (now also including Tony Tony Chopper!) grow to befriend the princess and take up her charge to fight for her country heading into Season 3.
Fans of the “One Piece” manga and anime created by Eiichiro Oda know that this is teasing a beloved arc from the story Chandran says will take up a good chunk of Season 3, which is currently filming in South Africa. And while she wasn’t familiar with the storyline when she first joined the “One Piece” live-action series, she’s a big fan of it now.
“When I auditioned, I didn’t know I was auditioning for ‘One Piece,’ nor was I familiar with the IP,” Chandran told Variety. “But then obviously, once I knew what the character was, I definitely learned her entire arc. And I was so excited, because it is such a journey. We’re filming Season 3 right now, and it’s so exciting and actually really lovely to be able to celebrate the launch of Season 2 because we get to look back on all the amazing work that we did. And when we go back to filming Season 3, it will give us the absolute joy and boost to finish filming.”
See below for more from Variety‘s interview with Chandran, including her tease of what’s to come when Princess Vivi properly joins Luffy, Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), Sanji (Taz Skylar), Nami (Emily Rudd), Usopp (Romero) and Tony Tony Chopper (Mikaela Hoover) in “One Piece” Season 3.
How did you play Princess Vivi vs. Miss Wednesday before the reveal of her true identity?
I wanted it to feel very organic and seamless and that it’s not a complete 180, and you still see some elements of how she got away with going undercover for so long when she is Vivi. But then, as an actor, it is so fun to be able to play that duality. What I found were traits that both of them have. So what Miss Wednesday and Vivi share is an element of strategy and diplomacy, and I think their fighting styles are obviously the same as well. They’re both quite elegant and dancery and efficient, and not necessarily aggressive fighters. I tried to find personality traits or characteristics that were a throughline, and then that helped me feel like it was just one character and consistent throughout portraying two very different parts.
How do you think the reconciliation between the Straw Hats and Vivi comes about once they learn who she really is, and forgive her for the actions she took against them when she was undercover as Miss Wednesday?
I don’t want to speak for the Straw Hats, but I think what we’ve seen in Season 1 is they all have that complicated backstories, too. In terms of them forgiving her and understanding the complications and the duplicitous nature of what she does, they do it quite easily. For Vivi, what’s really hard is accepting that these people are as good and as genuine as they truly, truly are. Because she’s been in Baroque Works where everyone is kind of awful, other than Mr. Nine, who is a cutie and really redeems himself at the end of Episode 3. The journey that Vivi goes on with the Straw Hats is really letting the love in, and allowing herself to rely on them, which is a super hard thing to do. I think so many people struggle with that.
At the end of Season 2, it’s revealed that Baroque Works agent Miss All Sunday is actually Nico Robin, another key character from the manga, and she’s working for Mr. 0, aka Crocodile. Throughout Season 2, once Miss All Sunday figures out who Princess Vivi really is, she’s both antagonizing her, but seemingly rooting for her and the Straw Hats in some ways. What does Vivi make of that heading into Season 3?
In Season 2, Vivi just thinks that Miss All Sunday is a psychopath and that it’s a game and she’s toying with her. Beyond that, in Season 2, she doesn’t think anything. I don’t think that she really respects Miss All Sunday, because Vivi is all about dignity and justice and purpose and other people. And because she doesn’t know Miss All Sunday’s backstory, she just thinks that Miss All Sunday is a crazy person. I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.
We can discuss Season 3 when Season 3 is coming up!
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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