A new film based on the anime franchise One Piece has been officially announced and will release in 2022. The original One Piece series began airing in 1999, becoming hugely successful over its 20-season run. The story follows Monkey D. Luffy and his crew of Straw Hat Pirates as they explore the Grand Line in search of the world's ultimate treasure: the titular "One Piece."

The One Piece franchise has had a bumper year in 2021. Eiichiro Oda's original manga series and its animated counterpart both reached 1,000 editions in the past year, celebrating significant anniversaries for the media juggernaut, as well as announcing the cast of a live-action One Piece adaptation from Netflix on the horizon, rebooting the story. This year One Piece fans have been offered a bounty of content by the creators already, but the announcement of a new canonical film has generated a huge buzz around the series once again.

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Recently, a teaser trailer for the new One Piece movie appeared on Twitter (via One Piece Film Red) on the eve of the 1,000th episode of the anime series. The clip reveals the title as One Piece: Red, and confirms the project will release in Japan in August 2022. According to Comic Book, Oda is onboard and will act as the creative supervisor on the new One Piece film, with Goro Taniguchi set to direct and Tsutomu Kuroiwa writing the script. Unfortunately, the teaser trailer doesn't reveal much about the film's content, but it seems clear that fan-favorite Red-Haired Shanks will play a pivotal role. The teaser can be seen below:

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The laid-back Shanks, chief of the Red Hair Pirate crew, is one of the Four Emperors of the New World. The title is claimed only by the most powerful pirate captains of the second half of the Grand Line. As the inspiration for Monkey D. Luffy to become the pirate protagonist of the series and seek the One Piece treasure, fans will be delighted to see the bestower of the iconic straw hat fleshed out as the focus of a film of his own.

Beginning its 24-year rise to the top in 1998, One Piece has become the most successful manga and anime series of all time and one of the highest-grossing media franchises ever. With the momentum gathered in the last year and crossing milestones most franchises only dream of, One Piece doesn't appear to be drawing the series to a close, as some may have expected. One Piece: Red will become the 14th film released under the One Piece universe's umbrella, and there are no signs of Oda's behemoth anime franchise fizzling out any time soon.

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Source: One Piece Film Red/Comic Book