Yahoo Lifestyle Jamie Lee Curtis No Longer Joining One Piece Season 2 as Dr. Kureha: ‘She Definitely Wanted to Do It, But…’
Jamie Lee Curtis won’t be crossing paths with Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates after all.
The actress, who snagged an Emmy nomination earlier this week for her role on The Bear, was all but confirmed to be playing Dr. Kureha in the upcoming second season of Netflix’s One Piece. Unfortunately, a new interview with Tomorrow Studios President Becky Clements reveals that the casting is not to be.
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“She loves the show, [but] she has too many films and TV shows that she’s going into production on, so our production dates aren’t going to work, Clements tells our sister site Deadline. “She definitely wanted to do it, but she’s got deals in first position, and it just became complicated.” On the bright side, Clements adds that “an amazing person” has been found to fill the vacant role.
Word of Curtis joining the live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s popular manga series first emerged in October 2023, when One Piece co-showrunner Matt Owens revealed that the role was basically being written with her in mind.
“We have opportunities to stunt cast some roles that are very important, and it came out that Jamie Lee Curtis is a One Piece fan,” Owens told Deadline at the time. “As soon as she said that, we were like, ‘OK, we have to try and get her on the show. What can we do?’ And Dr. Kureha, very luckily, is a character who is coming up in our story, and is someone who is perfect for Jamie Lee Curtis.
The One Piece writers room sent Curtis a figurine of Dr. Kureha following her 2023 Oscar win for her work in Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was accompanied by a note that read, “Congratulations on your statue, here’s another one to put next to it. Hope to speak to you soon.”
Curtis’ posting of that exchange on social media “got a lot of fan interest,” and Owens said he was trying to manifest the casting into existence.
“As of right now, SAG is still striking, so there have not been real conversations,” Owens explained. “But as soon as there can be, I’m ready. I will take her out to dinner, we’ll talk about it. We’ll do all of it, because at this point we’re writing for her — we really, really want her to come and play with us in Season 2.”
Get a taste of Dr. Kureha’s unique bedside manner in this clip from the One Piece anime series:
One Piece fans, are you disappointed that Curtis won’t be stepping into the role of Dr. Kureha? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.
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