There are a mind-blowing number of moving pieces required to shoot any major TV series, never mind one that carries an estimated price tag of $144 million, but even the almighty Netflix hasn’t proven itself immune from being cursed by eagle-eyed fans spotting – and then roundly mocking – a glaring goof.
With just 30 days to go until the eight-episode adaptation hits screens, the streaming service is going to have to start ramping up the marketing for One Piece any day now, especially when it’s already been written off as the platform’s latest expensive one-season wonder, which is a defeatist attitude that’s also entirely earned based on the company’s prior history for bungling both fantasy and live-action translations of beloved manga.
And yet, the first trailer didn’t quite manage to quell the discontent, after it was quickly noted that a background character hiding in the footage was sporting a none-more-modern smartwatch. Needless to say, Netflix was forced to act quickly and head back into the booth to remove the glaring mistake, with the updated version – sans modern technology – now the one located on the streamer’s YouTube channel.
Comparisons to Game of Thrones and its pilloried production oversights are there for all to see, although it isn’t quite as egregious as a coffee cop spotted hiding in plain sight. In the grand scheme of things it shouldn’t really matter at all, but when Netflix is spending such a vast amount of money on a lavish epic, then you’d expect somebody to notice these kind of things.
Then again, effects artists and post-production wizards are among the most overworked and underpaid creatives in the industry, so some slack should be cut.