Steven Maeda, the showrunner for the Netflix One Piece adaptation, stated that there will be no romance between anyone in the Straw Hat Crew in the show. This is due to Eiichiro Oda, the original mangaka of One Piece, putting his foot down about it. So any sparks that viewers may see between the characters will never come to be. [Thanks, TVGroove!]
According to TVGroove, many fans have noticed that Zoro (Mackenyu) and Nami (Emily Rudd) have a really strong onscreen chemistry. A lot of their interactions in scenes look like one of those couples that argue a lot, but still like each other. So viewers unfamiliar with the source material might think Zoro and Nami are supposed to be a couple. However, Oda did not want romance between the Crew, so there will be no live-action-only canon Zoro/Nami.
This may not be surprising news to fans of the One Piece anime and manga. One Piece is a story of friendship and found family, and the relationships between everyone in Luffy’s crew ultimately remains platonic. Maeda states that he does not intend to portray Zoro and Nami’s relationship as a romantic one. However, he cannot deny that Mackenyu and Rudd work very well together.
The One Piece live-action adaptation is streaming via Netflix.
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