There’s quite a bit we know about One Piece Season 2, including that Joe Manganiello has been tapped to play Crocodile, the hook-handed antagonist who ate the Sand-Sand Fruit and is one of Monkey D. Luffy’s oldest enemies in the manga and anime. While we’re still a ways off from the next season premiering on the 2025 TV schedule and getting to see how Manganiello will look as the live-action Crocodile, I’m pretty jazzed that in real life, the True Blood alum ran into one of the most badass actors from Season 1. Now my fingers are crossed in the hope that these two share screen time on One Piece someday.
While attending the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight, which, like One Piece, can be streamed with a Netflix subscription, Manganiello ran into Steven John Ward. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, maybe you’ll recognize the name of his One Piece character: Dracula Mihawk. Yes, Ward played the world’s greatest swordsman in one of the best shows on Netflix, and now he’s been able to meet one of the newest One Piece actors who’ve come board. Check out the Instagram picture commemorating the occasion:
But there’s more tying Crocodile and Mihawk together besides simply existing in the same world. Early on in One Piece, both their characters are among the Warlords of the Sea, i.e. pirates who have been pardoned and given significant leeway, provided that they carry out directives from the World Government. Later on, Crocodile and Mihawk form Cross Guild (which Buggy the Clown ends up leading), hence Joe Manganiello’s shoutout in the caption.
There was a lot to enjoy in One Piece Season 1, and one of my favorite moments was when Dracule Mihawk fought Roronoa Zoro outside of the Barite restaurant, a fight in which the latter was sorely overmatched. Just watch the scene below and join me in hoping that Netflix’s One Piece brings Crocodile and Mihawk together:
There’s just one potential problem with this. The One Piece manga and anime are still going, with the former beginning in 1997 and the latter debuting in 1999. So obviously I don’t think the Netflix show will be able to cover that same amount of narrative real estate, but even so, Crocodile and Dracule Mihawk don’t cross paths until the Marineford arc. Considering that One Piece Season 2 will stop right before the Alabasta arc, and making my own estimations for what seasons will cover which arcs, Netflix’s One Piece would need to run until a seventh or eight season to hit Marineford, and the chances of that happening are extremely slim.
That said, this is an adaptation, and there are already some big differences between Netflix’s One Piece and the anime, like introducing Luffy’s grandfather Garp way earlier. So maybe the writers can find a way to bring Joe Manganiello’s Crocodile and Steven John Ward’s Dracule Mihawk together much sooner. I hope so, because the idea of seeing these characters fight or team up in live-action sounds amazing. Count on CinemaBlend to let you know if that ends up happening as part of our continuing One Piece coverage.
