We’re a month out from One Piece Season 2 debuting on the 2026 TV schedule, reuniting fans with the live-action takes on the Straw Hat Pirates for the first time in over two and a half years. That includes Taz Skylar’s Sanji, whom was the last member of the crew to be introduced in Season 1. Despite getting the least amount of screen time compared to the other Straw Hat actors in that first batch of episodes, Skylar still had plenty to do, and there was one particular moment in particular when filming One Piece that the actor admitted led to him “sobbing like a little boy.”
In the lead-up to Season 2 arriving to Netflix subscription holders, Taz Skylar has been posting a series of videos on his YouTube page chronicling his experience working on Season 1. One of the more recent videos has him talking about filming Sanji’s fight with Kuroobi, one of Arlong’s main henchmen. Skylar recalled that when they shot Sanji landing that last kick that sent the Fishman flying into a wall, he was on a wire connected to a harness through something called a pick point. He continued:
Now, I went back to my tent after that last kick, after that last stunt, to take the shackle off of my harness. And I remember I took it off and I held it and I looked at it and I realized that that was the last moment that potentially ever I was going to wear one of these shackles ‘cause I was done. finished, I finished the show. I finished all the stunts, and I touched my body and I couldn't believe that I was somehow still in one piece. Pun intended.
Taz Skylar definitely has one of the more physically-exerting roles on One Piece. Because Sanji doesn’t want to damage his hands so he can continue cooking, he only fights using his legs. So Skylar has to kick a lot playing the character, and that becomes even harder one you throw in these stunts. So it’s perfectly normal for Skylar to have felt such relief when the Kuroobi fight scene was finished, which prompted more emotions to surface:
And then I just I stood there for a minute and I just started crying. Started sobbing like a little boy. I was I was so emotional. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that I'd done it, that I'd finished it, that I'd gotten through the whole show and I hadn't died or that I hadn't failed. I didn't know if I'd succeeded. I don't think I was confident enough to say I'd succeeded, but I definitely knew at the very least, I hadn't failed.
Again, it’s perfectly understandable he reacted the way he did. After mentioning that the only time on One Piece that a stunt double has filled in for him (it’s unclear if he’s just talking about Season 1 or if that includes Season 2) when Sanji gets tossed onto a table at Zeff’s restaurant, Taz Skylar added:
I was just so proud of that fact. I was so proud that I'd gotten to the end and achieved that. And again, I didn't know how it was going to look, but I knew at the very least I had I had done my best. I'd left it I'd left it all on the table. And for better or for worse, that was my best. And I was really proud of that. And then I continued to cry like a little boy for what must have been 20 minutes, half an hour. Someone came into my tent. I think Annie, my makeup artist. [She] came in and asked me why I was crying. And I was like, ‘Because I did it. Because I'm alive. Because I'm I finished. ‘Cause I'm done. I don't know why I'm crying.’
Now I’m interested to learn if Taz Skylar had any similar moments while working on One Piece Season 2, but we won’t know about that until the new episodes are released. This new season will see Sanji, Iñaki Godoy’s Monkey D. Luffy, Mackenyu’s Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd’s Nami and Jacob Gibson’s Usopp first visiting Loguetown, then embarking into the Grand Line to meet characters like Miss All-Sunday, the adorable Tony Tony Chopper and the giant whale Laboon. Life’s about to get a lot more exciting for the Straw Hats.
One Piece Season 2 premieres March 10, and Season 3 is filming now. This is one of the many best shows to binge-watch on Netflix, and given what a massive success Season 1 was, I hope Season 2 performs just as well, if not better.
