‘THAT’S MY SON’: ‘One Piece’s Tony Tony Chopper tease is everything
News about the second season of Netflix’s live-action One Piece has been coming out at a slow but steady drip since June. First, we got a wave of secondary character castings. Then, we got Kureha. Then, we got Vivi and Cobra. This week, we finally got Nico Robin and Crocodile. But Netflix still tantalizingly teasing us regarding the biggest addition of all: the Straw Hats’ doctor, Tony Tony Chopper.
During Netflix’s Geeked Week event on September 19, we got our very first look at the live-action adaptation version of Chopper. It was merely a glimpse from the back, but it sent the entirety of social media reeling and screaming, “THAT’S MY SON.”
The tease occurred during a reel of the first read-through of season two, hosted by Luffy’s actor, Iñaki Godoy. At the end, Godoy addresses the audience, “I can’t believe who’s here to make their debut in season two.” And there he was: my son, Tony Tony Chopper, from the back at the read-through, surrounded by a frankly startling number of water bottles.
The ridiculously high anticipation behind Chopper goes beyond the fact that he’s a fan-favorite character. Chopper’s a reindeer—and a transforming one at that—so fans have been waiting with bated breath to see how he’d be handled in the live-action setting. While people like me kept tweeting #MakeChopperAMuppet or were at least hoping for a puppet Chopper, it appears that the production went with CG. That being said, fans were hoping a CG Chopper would take “the Detective Pikachu approach,” and things look very promising in that regard.
Because that special boy, right there? Unless he turns around and we have a shocking Ugly Sonic situation—THAT’S MY SON.
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