One Piece Season 2 Trailer Officially Sets Up Luffy’s Best Crew Member With a Major Cameo

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Published Feb 10, 2026, 10:00 AM EST

An experienced Editor representing Canada via Screen Rant's Team Anime, J.R. has been reading manga since the first printing of Shonen Jump in North America. This passion drove him to write about anime, manga, and manhwa since 2022, having recently served as Lead Anime Editor for ComicBook.com.

His favorite moments in media coverage include reviewing the series premieres of Zom 100 and Bleach: TYBW Part 2 back-to-back and briefly meeting Junji Ito at a VIZ gallery event in 2023.

Netflix's One Piece has only continued to defy expectations, facing the uphill battle of live-action anime adaptations head-on with season 2 looking especially exciting. The Straw Hats are back, and will soon be greater in numbers not just because of additions like Tony Tony Chopper and future crewmate Nico Robin; the presence of one character strongly implies a Brook teaser.

While previous hints were already laid out about the ninth Straw Hat showing up early in One Piece season 2, given the presence of the Rumbar Pirates' Jolly Roger and Brook's violin among the title cards. The latest prominent showing of Laboon really sells this, especially since the live-action series has a shot to hint at Brook's early life.

One Piece Season 2's Laboon Heralds Brook Is on the Way

While multiple future Straw Hats join the crew before Brook, with Franky not even appearing yet in One Piece season 2, the appearance of Laboon presents a unique opportunity for an early introduction. Laboon, the island whale, is shown multiple times in the trailer, even sporting Luffy's unintelligible scrawling of the Straw Hats Jolly Roger on his scarred face.

Laboon waited for many miserable decades before meeting Luffy and the Straw hats as they entered the Grand Line. The source of his misery was, after all, waiting for the Rumbar Pirates, with whom he had bonded deeply, but would largely never see again, with the reasons yet to be revealed in live-action.

Laboon was given his name by none other than master musician and future acting captain, Brook. While this wouldn't be revealed for a significant period, with the Alabasta, Skypiea, and Water 7 sagas coming first, One Piece is strongly hinting it'll show brief glimpses of the Rumbar Pirates, and Brook, as Laboon remembers them.

Netflix's One Piece Has Changed Character Introductions Before

One Piece Live Action's Garp Next to Luffy

Setting a strong precedent in One Piece season 1 without fundamentally changing the story, for instance, was bringing Monkey D. Garp, Luffy's grandfather, into the story. Doing so raised the stakes, complicating Luffy's relationship with the Marines, while giving Koby a more organic path to future developments under Garp's wing.

Introducing Brook wouldn't even be a radical move by any stretch. It'd truly not make sense to introduce him in his current state, stuck in the Florian Triangle. However early memories of him are a welcome prospect, especially with the notion of the Rumbar crew belting out Binks' Brew (or Sake) before tragically being reduced to a Brook solo.