SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “One Piece” Season 2, now streaming on Netflix.
The doctor is in the house: Netflix’s “One Piece” finally introduced human-reindeer hybrid Tony Tony Chopper in the seventh episode of the second season. It’s a moment that fans of the iconic fuzzy character from Eiichiro Oda’s original “One Piece” manga have been waiting for since the live-action adaptation was first announced, and one many were worried was too hard to pull off.
And “One Piece” stars Iñaki Godoy (Monkey D. Luffy), Mackenyu (Roronoa Zoro), Taz Skylar (Sanji), Emily Rudd (Nami) and Jacob Romero (Usopp) assure that bringing the tiny doctor to life was a big task that showrunners Matt Owens and Joe Tracz took very seriously.
“Oh, he’s there with us,” Mackenyu tells Variety in a group interview alongside his “One Piece” co-stars, noting the practical aspects of filming with CGI character Chopper for Season 2.
Netflix’s “One Piece” cast Mikaela Hoover to star as the voice and motion capture actor for Chopper, who would carry his tragic backstory — and then brought in performers N’kone Mametja to be the on-set proxy and Gavin Gomes to play the supersized “heavy point” version of Chopper he shape shifts into.
“There’s like eight or nine people that go into creating the experience that Chopper is, from on set to its completion,” Romero says. “We have an actress that’s there — N’kone, she’s amazing. She’s there with us on the day, crawling around and being like a live presence, filling those lines with emotion and also just helping us block the scenes and all this stuff. There’s also a stuffy version of Chopper that they bring out.” (Skylar says the stuffy version is “a great listener” that “you can request to have put in your tent, if you want company.”)
Romero continues: “There’s CGI eyes that also come out. Then we have the heavy-point version, which is Gavin, who’s in full prosthetics. So we joke that Chopper is the highest-maintenance actor that we work with.”
“We do so many takes for him,” Rudd says with a laugh.
“Each version of Chopper has a different personality. Gavin is like a big, mischievous, energetic dude,” Skylar says, as Rudd adds: “N’kone is the sweetest person you’ll ever meet in your entire life, just so gentle and warm.”
Though “Mikaela brings all the character to him,” Skylar says, the cast says all the setup assisted in the authenticity of their scenes with the CGI’d Chopper.
“It’s a layered production, but just like all the sets and everything else, there’s something there that we could reach out to and interact with and help build our emotional connection with this character,” Romero says.
By the end of the season, Chopper has formally joined the Straw Hat Pirates as a crew member on the Going Merry and, along with Princess Vivi (Charithra Chandran), will be a major cast member in Season 3, which is currently in production in South Africa.
Following these introductions, as well as the early Season 2 tease of the character Dragon (which Godoy says is “a cool thing” that “fans that know what’s up” will understand the implications of), more iconic characters are set to come in Season 3.
But how many characters “One Piece” fans get to see in the end is TBD, and up to just how far the creators and cast are willing to go when it comes to adapting the more than 1,000-episode anime into a live-action show.
“I think it’s something that we’ll just see along the way. And as long as it makes sense,” Godoy says. “I don’t think we have an answer.”
“I’m committed,” Romero says. “For the next 150 years, I’m fully committed.”
Leave a Reply