One Piece Season 2 is just a few months away from premiering on the 2026 TV schedule, but for the Netflix subscription-exclusive show’s cast and crew, the time has come to work on Season 3. The third batch of One Piece episodes are now filming in Cape Town, South Africa. Along with this announcement coming with a cool tease tied to Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy’s brother, I’m excited to learn that four characters we’re meeting in Season 2 will have a lot more screen time in Season 3.
Let’s start with that tease first. As seen below, the One Piece Season 3 premiere script, titled “Where There’s Smoke,” is sitting out in the desert alongside a human skull, a Log Pose (which allows one to safely traverse the Grand Line), and a distinctive-looking dagger. That dagger, in fact, belongs to Ace, who will be played by Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña in the live-action adaptation.
