Summary
- The upcoming live-action adaptation of One Piece on Netflix will feature the major mentor figure Chef Zeff, played by Craig Fairbrass.
- Chef Zeff is the head chef and owner of the floating restaurant, Baratie, and his encounter with Luffy leads to the introduction of Sanji as a key crew member.
- The show’s inclusion of Chef Zeff suggests that the backstory between him and Sanji will likely be explored, allowing audiences to better understand Sanji’s motivations.
The roster of characters from the iconic manga continues to grow with a new One Piece image. The upcoming Netflix show serves as a live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s works, centering on the adventurous young Monkey D. Luffy as he aims to form his own crew of pirates that come to be known as the Straw Hat Pirates and sets sail in search of the mythical One Piece to become king of the pirates. Iñaki Godoy is leading One Piece‘s ensemble cast as Luffy alongside Mackenyu, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero Gibson and Taz Skylar.
With just two weeks remaining until the show’s premiere, the official Twitter for Netflix’s One Piece has revealed a new image.
The image, as seen above, finally offers the first proper look at the major mentor figure of Chef Zeff, played by Craig Fairbrass in the live-action show. Fairbrass can be seen donning Zeff’s iconic chef’s hat standing nearly as tall as him, as well as his braided mustache that hangs down to just below his shoulders.
Why Chef Zeff Is Important For One Piece’s Story
Introduced in chapter 43 of the One Piece manga, and episode 20 of the anime, Chef Zeff is the head chef and owner of the floating restaurant, Baratie, where Luffy incidentally deflected a cannonball from Navy lieutenant Fullbody, causing damage to the ship and resulting in having to work for a year to pay off the damages. Though a brief speed bump in their journey, this stop would lead to Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Nami and Usopp meeting the fifth main member of their crew, the master chef Sanji.
Despite having an abrasive relationship in their first appearances, One Piece would ultimately reveal the harrowing backstory Zeff and Sanji share with one another, having met while the latter was serving as an apprentice chef as a child on a passenger ship. This would be raided by the former, who was then leading a crew known as the Cook Pirates under the name “Red Foot” Zeff. As the ship was swept into the ocean and left the duo stranded on an island, Zeff would save Sanji’s life by offering him the only bag of food he recovered from the wreckage, instead cutting off one of his legs to keep himself alive until they’re rescued.
At the time of writing, it’s currently unclear how much the live-action One Piece show will tackle Zeff and Sanji’s backstory, though his inclusion in the show seems to point towards some version of this being explored. Considering how closely involved Oda has been in the show’s production, and his praise of the efforts made by the Netflix team to stay true to his source material, it seems likely that their past will be shown, allowing audiences to better connect with Sanji and his motivations for leaving his mentor to set sail with Luffy.
One Piece premieres on Netflix on August 31.
Source: Netflix/Twitter