Matt Owens, who has guided Netflix‘s live-action One Piece series through its first two seasons, has announced he’s leaving the show.
In an Instagram post Friday, Owens wrote that he is leaving the show to “focus on myself and my mental health.” One Piece recently finished filming its second season.
“The last six years of working on the live action One Piece have been a life changing journey. A dream come true,” Owens wrote. “It’s also been A LOT. So I’m stepping off the Going Merry. … Thank you so much to Oda, Shueisha, Tomorrow Studios, Netflix, and the entire cast and crew for your trust, partnership, and hard work.”
Owens has been with the live-action adaptation of the long-running manga (which has also spawned a number of anime series) by Eiichiro Oda from the start. He developed a long-term plan for the series and served as co-showrunner on both seasons of the series to date — alongside Steven Maeda in season one (Maeda remains an executive producer) and Joe Tracz in the forthcoming second season.
Tracz will continue overseeing post-production on season two; Netflix hasn’t announced a release date.
The official One Piece Instagram reposted Owens’ message (which you can read in full, below) with the comment “You set us on a course for something truly special.”
Prior to One Piece, Owens was a writer on a pair of Marvel series, Agents of SHIELD at ABC and Luke Cage at Netflix. He and Tracz executive produce One Piece with Maeda, Oda, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements.
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