Ryan O’Rourke

Published Jul 19, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Ryan O’Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided’s CubbiesCrib. Whether it’s taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what’s going on. Outside of entertainment, he’s a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor’s in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.

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Although Netflix’s One Piece just set sail into the Grand Line with Season 2 only four months ago, the Straw Hat Pirates are close to hoisting the anchor once again. Back in April, the streamer previewed a few expansions to its empire based on Eiichiro Oda’s globally popular manga, including the previously announced new anime remake, The One Piece, Season 3 of the live-action series, and, first up on the calendar, a first-of-its-kind LEGO: One Piece special. The new animated project will consist of two parts, revisiting the two seasons of the adaptation so far, with plenty of humor, heart, and a ton of bricks. All it needed was a crew to man it, and Netflix had just the team to do it.

Collider can exclusively confirm that all the main stars of the live-action One Piece will be reprising their roles in LEGO form. That includes all five of Iñaki Godoy, Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero, and Taz Skylar, as well as the newest addition to the Straw Hats in Season 2, Mikaela Hoover as Tony Tony Chopper. They’ll also be joined by a few familiar friends and foes, including Katey Sagal as Dr. Kureha, Jeff Ward as Buggy, Charithra Chandran as Miss Wednesday, aka Vivi, and Callum Kerr as the Marine captain Smoker. Additionally, we have a new image to share of Usopp contained within a LEGO brick, teasing the navigator’s new minifigure look as first seen in the Season 1 Lego set. A short video was also shared that consists of one brick from the many that make up the Going Merry’s next voyage.

The LEGO: One Piece animated special is designed as both an entry point for newcomers to the world and a love letter for the veterans, who have followed Luffy’s hunt for the titular treasure across 1,185 manga chapters and 1,167 episodes. With the signature LEGO humor, it’ll retell the Devil Fruit-powered young pirate’s story so far, from gathering his first crewmates, Zorro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji, to battling the Arlong Pirates, entering the wondrous and dangerous Grand Line, facing off with the Baroque Works assassins, and much more. Acting as the reliably unreliable navigator for this tale is Usopp, who is not only regaling audiences but also getting Chopper up to speed so the reindeer boy fully understands the crew’s history.

Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.

You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.

You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.

You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.

You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.

You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.

Netflix partnered with LEGO Group, Shueisha, and the Vancouver-based animation studio Atomic Cartoons to make their LEGO: One Piece special a reality. Atomic has plenty of experience with the iconic brick building toy brand, having previously animated LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy and LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar. At the helm, One Piece staff writer Tom Hyndman stepped up as showrunner and writer, as well as an executive producer, joining Oda himself, Jill Wilfert, Keith Malone, and Lars Danielsen for LEGO, and Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements for Tomorrow Studios. He’ll look to build on the success that has made One Piecea Netflix staple, coming off a second season that dominated streaming charts and earned a perfect 100% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

The two-part *LEGO: *One Piece animated special streams on Netflix on September 29. Check out our exclusive teaser image above and stay tuned here at Collider for more on the title leading up to its release.

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