Netflix: Casting Luffy for the live-action version of One Piece was one of the most difficult challenges

Adapting One Piece into live-action - with all its over-the-top drama and crazy Devil Fruit powers - is an incredibly daunting task, and that unsurprisingly extends to the casting of its core characters.

During the company's third-quarter earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos took a break from topics like the streaming platform's password-sharing crackdown and price increases to talk up the success of the One Piece adaptation. Sarandos pointed to Netflix's broad talent base as he talked about how the company was able to bring together teams in the U.S. and Japan to tackle this "sacred IP," and explained how they found Iñaki Godoy, who played Monkey D. Luffy in the live-action version with passion and innocence.

"One of the hardest casting challenges in the history of our original programming was who would play Luffy? Godoy was right under our noses, right in our family of talent. We discovered him a few years ago and cast him in a great Mexican show called Who Killed Sara? Then we cast him in this series, and now he's a global superstar."

It's understandable why Netflix, production studio Tomorrow Studios, and One Piece creator and series executive producer Eiichiro Oda had a hard time picking everyone's favorite bouncy pirate captain. Still, Godoy has been widely praised by fans and critics, with IGN's review calling his performance "shockingly believable": "His quirky personality, zany mannerisms, and pinpoint delivery of fan-favorite lines all help embody this sometimes clueless but always heroic pirate."