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Netflix's One Piece recycled old pirate ships from Starz drama Black Sails

In fact, these left behind ships is one of the reasons One Piece shot in South Africa

Still image from One Piece trailer featuring ships in harbor
Image credit: Netflix

As Netflix's One Piece live action adaptation takes the world by storm with its not-quite-for-children pirate adventure, it's been discovered that the roots of some of its ships come from another not-quite-for-children pirate adventure from not too long ago.

This is normally when we'd talk about eagle eyed fans noticing impossible-to-spot details (like all the differences between the anime and the live action shows), but with the bright and heavily designed world of One Piece, fans would be excused if they failed to notice the repurposing of some pirate ships from Starz's more grounded historical pirate drama Black Sails.

In a recent interview with Youtuber Michael Crawford, One Piece Cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker shared that the production had used three ships "that had been built for another show - that was a very different show - called Black Sails." In fact, those three ships, as well as three water tanks that were used to film underwater scenes (apparently there was no filming in the actual ocean for One Piece) were one of the reasons why the One Piece production ended up filming in South Africa.

While the two shows are certainly different, Luffy's statement that being a pirate is about "adventure and freedom" would probably ring true for the pirate captains in Black Sails as well, so maybe it's a good thing these ships got passed down.


Finished One Piece and not quite sure what happened at the end? Check out our season 1 ending explained guide.

Black Sails is the best pirate show of all time

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About the Author
Tiffany Babb avatar

Tiffany Babb

Deputy Editor

Tiffany Babb is Popverse's deputy editor and resident Sondheim enthusiast. Tiffany likes stories that understand genre conventions (whether they play into them or against them), and she cries very easily at the movies— but rarely at the moments that are meant to be tearjerkers.

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