Cobra Kai Meets The Lord Of The Rings In Netflix's 10/10 Fantasy Series

5 days ago 11

Published Sep 5, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT

Tom is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, with expertise covering everything from hilarious sitcoms to jaw-dropping sci-fi epics.

Initially he was an Updates writer, though before long he found his way to the TV and movies team. He now spends his days keeping Screen Rant readers informed about the TV shows of yesteryear, whether it's recommending hidden gems that may have been missed by genre fans or deep diving into ways your favorite shows have (or haven't) stood the test of time.

Tom is based in the UK and when he's not writing about TV shows, he's watching them. He's also an avid horror fiction writer, gamer, and has a Dungeons and Dragons habit that he tries (and fails) to keep in check.

As far as grand, sweeping, spectacle-filled fantasy adventures go, nothing seems to come close to touching The Lord of the Rings. Both the original books by J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s universally acclaimed movie trilogy secured Middle-earth as pop culture’s go-to location for epic swords-and-sorcery sagas. From the Shire to Mordor, Tolkien created a world with an extraordinary sense of history, while Jackson brought its scale to the screen with a cinematic ambition that transformed fantasy filmmaking.

Still, while The Lord of the Rings is near-perfect, there’s a fair argument that it doesn’t offer the kind of kinetic, high-energy atmosphere many modern viewers crave. It’s grandiose and takes itself seriously, which the franchise’s devoted fans adore, but that can also make it off-putting to general viewers. Fortunately, Netflix’s live-action One Piece exists to deliver everything that makes The Lord of the Rings great, but with much more spring in its step.

Arriving in 2023 with two seasons so far and a third on the way, One Piece is Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s epic 1175+ chapter manga, which has been ongoing since 1997. Following Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) on his quest to become the King of the Pirates. With their One Piece live-action adaptation, Netflix merged the grandeur of LotR with the high-energy pacing and tone of one of their own breakout stories, Cobra Kai. The result is a distinctive fantasy saga with a Tolkien-esque scale that any Lord of the Rings fan would do themselves a disservice by avoiding.

The Live-Action One Piece Injects Cobra Kai’s Energy Into A Lord Of The Rings-Scale Epic

One Piece Season 2 Luffy and Nami at Loguetown

While it’s very different to both in myriad ways, Netflix's live-action One Piece as a viewing experience feels like a cross between The Lord of the Rings and Cobra Kai. What’s more, it should be applauded for how well it combines the spirit of these two properties when, on paper, they shouldn’t be able to overlap at all. One is a grand fantasy epic in a medieval world, the other is a martial arts show about competing dojo’s in LA. Somehow, though, One Piece takes the best aspects of each and blends them seamlessly.

Like Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the world of Eiichiro Oda’s pirate fantasy is enormous, densely populated, and filled with locations and characters whose individual histories feel more fleshed out than many main characters and central locations in lesser fantasy titles. However, rather than mimicking LotR’s earnest approach, the One Piece series brings Oda’s world into live-action with the youthful energy and vibrance that helped make Cobra Kai one of Netflix’s biggest successes.

Like Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) and the young fighters at the center of Cobra Kai, Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, bring an infectious enthusiasm to every conflict and encounter. Netflix’s One Piece moves quickly, embraces comedy, and allows its characters to be emotionally expressive without undermining the seriousness of their larger goals. The action is energetic and the plot fast-paced, with the show maintaining momentum even as it introduces a world as expansive and detailed as the setting of The Lord of the Rings.

Taking a leaf out of Cobra Kai’s book makes One Piece feel very different from the stately grandeur of The Lord of the Rings, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The scale is comparable, but the atmosphere is deliberately more colorful and playful. Luffy’s journey involves dangerous villains and genuine tragedy just like Frodo’s, yet the series never forgets to place enjoyment before all else. The result is fantasy on an enormous canvas without the intimidating weight that often accompanies epic world-building. Netflix’s live-action One Piece proves that a vast fictional universe can be loud, funny, and energetic without sacrificing the depth necessary to support a truly epic adventure.

Netflix’s One Piece Is The Perfect Gateway Into Modern Fantasy’s Definitive Epic

Netflix One Piece live-action Luffy and Nami on their ship smiling and happy

Many traditional Western fantasy fans have historically been dismissive of One Piece simply because it began as a manga and became synonymous with anime fandom. For audiences accustomed to Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, or traditional swords-and-sorcery fiction, those labels can create the impression that Oda’s story belongs to an entirely separate category. This is why Netflix’s live-action One Piece is important. It removes much of that initial barrier and is the perfect gateway into an epic fantasy world many genre aficionados are unfairly ignoring.

The Netflix One Piece series presents Oda’s world using a familiar live-action format while preserving the imagination that made the source material so distinctive. Viewers do not need any knowledge of manga or anime to understand Luffy’s journey. They can simply enter an expansive fantasy universe, meet its characters, and follow an increasingly ambitious adventure.

There is also a compelling argument that One Piece is the definitive fantasy epic of the 21st century, much as The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s Middle-earth stories defined the genre during the 20th. Its world is enormous, its mythology continues to expand, and its characters have developed across a story of extraordinary scale. Few modern fantasy properties can match its ambition or cultural reach.

Anyone skeptical of that comparison should take the plunge with Netflix’s live-action One Piece. It offers an accessible introduction to Oda’s enormous pirate-fantasy epic while demonstrating why the property has endured for decades. The Lord of the Rings remains the benchmark for traditional epic fantasy, but One Piece may be the modern genre’s most ambitious successor, and Netflix has found the perfect way to introduce it to a new audience.