Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece’s main protagonist, recently celebrated his birthday, and along with Crunchyroll commemorating the occasion by premiering the English dub of One Piece Season 14 Voyage 15, the live-action adaptation got in on the fun too. Iñaki Godoy, who plays Luffy in the TV show that screens exclusively to Netflix subscribers, shot a video to pay tribute to his charatcer, and it ended with a delightful character tease for the upcoming One Piece Season 2.
How Iñaki Godoy Celebrated Monkey D. Luffy’s Birthday
Monkey D. Luffy is Iñaki Godoy’s most famous role yet, and thanks to the massive success of One Piece Season 1 in 2023, he gets to keep playing the character for another batch of episodes.So it was only fitting that on May 5, a video was released on X (formerly known as Twitter) of Godoy bringing in a birthday cake for Luffy’s big day and thanking the stretchy pirate for what he’s done for him and others around the world. Take a look!
It’s May 5th, NAKAMA! 🎉 Join our captain @InakiGodoy in celebrating the greatest, coolest, and most inspiring pirate to ever sail the Grand Line. Happy B-B-B-B-Birthday, Monkey D. Luffy! 🌬️🎂 pic.twitter.com/e0BLcFGklEMay 5, 2024
As is customary for a birthday cake, a candle was placed atop the desert, and Godoy lit it and blew it out on Luffy’s behalf. But when the camera zoomed in, this candle was shown to be shaped like the number 3. This is a not-so-subtle reference to Mr. 3, a villain who is now the second character to be teased for One Piece Season 2, following manga creator Eiichiro Oda sharing we can also expect Tony Tony Chopper to appear.
Who Is Mr. 3?
Mr. 3, a.k.a. “Loan Shark” Galadino, is one of the higher-ranking agents in Baroque Works, a criminal organization that antagonized Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates during the Alabasta saga. The character is visually distinctive for having a ‘3’ top knot, although in the manga and anime, his hair sometimes amusingly forms other shapes to represent his reactions to situations. In addition to being a skilled tactician, Mr. 3 ate the Wax-Wax Fruit, which allows him to create and manipulate candle wax, hence the candle tease in Iñaki Godoy’s video.
Mr. 3 was introduced in the Little Garden arc, where he, his partner Miss Goldenweek and some other Baroque Works agents attempted to kill the Straw Hats on the Little Garden island, where two jovial pirate giants had been fighting each other for a century. Although he was punished by Crocodile, Baroque Works’ leader, for failing to eliminate the heroes, he managed to survive his boss’ wrath and avoided being arrested like nearly all the other leading agents in the organization. Much later down the line, Mr. 3 allied himself with Luffy during the Impel Down arc, and then he affiliated himself with Buggy the Clown and Alvida.
No doubt the Mr. 3 in Netflix’s One Piece will be utilized in the same way as his manga/anime counterpart, and while the live-action adaptation is not as cartoonish as its source material, I’m hoping the character’s ‘3’ top knot remains intact. It’s hard to say when we’ll learn who’s playing Mr. 3, as One Piece Season 2 doesn’t begin shooting until next month. Still, it’s good to know he wasn’t taken out of the adaptation, and I’m intrigued to see how his wax powers look in live-action.
While we wait for more news about One Piece Season 2 to come out, look over the other best Netflix TV shows available to stream now and the 2024 TV schedule to see what programming is currently on or coming soon elsewhere.
