One Piece Film: Red's first teaser trailer dropped quite recently and although quite short, it was more than enough to send fans into a frenzy. Film Red is the 15th movie of One Piece, following One Piece: Stampede, which was released back in 2019. For the 25th anniversary of the series, a movie was quite the perfect way to celebrate, and Eiichiro Oda, along with the One Piece staff at Toei Animation, joined forces to write what could end up being the most ambitious movie to date.
Unlike Stampede, One Piece Film: Red sees Eiichiro Oda take the role of the supervisor and producer and according to the staff, Oda's role in this movie is much bigger and his involvement in the movie is much more than in any other so far. As fans move closer to the release of One Piece Film: Red, it was only a matter of time before the trailer dropped and once it did, fans got a slight idea about the plot of the movie. The trailer might've been short, but there's a lot to go through, so let's break it down.
Shanks And His Daughter Uta
The trailer opens with Shanks talking to a young Uta somewhere in a place resembling a castle. It must be noted that this scene is over 10 years before the beginning of Luffy's journey as Shanks still has his iconic Straw Hat and hasn't given it to Luffy just yet. At this point, Shanks' is also not one of the Yonko as he only rose to the position about four years before Luffy's journey began. Holding a conversation with Uta, Shanks mentions that though they might be apart, she'll always be his daughter.
This already is quite a shock for One Piece fans to process as no hints have ever been provided in the canon about Shanks having a daughter. Yet, the movie focuses heavily on it. Whether Uta is the biological daughter of Shanks or not remains to be seen, however, it is quite interesting that she has the same red hair on her left side as Shanks, indicating that there might be a blood connection after all. Moments later, fans also get to see a parental figure to Uta, possibly her mother and a potential lover of Shanks who holds her back as Shanks leaves on his journey and eventually ends up in Fushia Village, where he ends up staying for a year and gives his Straw Hat to Luffy.
The Straw Hat Pirates' Role In The Movie
As always, the Straw Hat Pirates will be central to the movie and all the events are likely to unfold at a Music Festival somewhere. Luffy and the crew eventually end up meeting Uta and from the teaser, it seems that Luffy is quite worried about her. Uta's decisions seem to have landed her in some sort of trouble and in one particular scene, she even has a sword at her neck, and Luffy rushes in to save her with a Gear Third charged fist. Luffy also goes on to tell her that if Shanks hears what his daughter is doing, there's no way that he'll keep quiet about it. While on the surface, this sounds like Uta is up to something nefarious, it could also mean that she's giving her life up for some cause, which Shanks obviously won't like. The goal of the Straw Hat Pirates seems to be to stop whatever Uta is planning to do.
Uta's Role In The Movie
Uta's role in the movie could be slightly antagonistic, however, she clearly isn't the main antagonist of the story. On her film poster, a quote from her read "Luffy, I want you to stop being a pirate," implying that Uta is, in some way, against Luffy fulfilling the promise to Shanks. In fact, during the main battle, Luffy doesn't even have his iconic Straw Hat on him, meaning Uta could've taken it from it as it belongs to none other than her father. Perhaps Uta is envious of the fact that Shanks chose Luffy to find the One Piece and not her, or perhaps she's being manipulated by someone with evil intentions, which brings us to Gordon.
Gordon appears to be a side character in the movie and very little is known about him at the moment. It has already been established that Film Red will be quite different from your average One Piece movies and will not have Luffy beating the strong guy to save the day. It is entirely possible for Gordon to be the bad guy in the movie pulling the strings from behind the scenes, all for the sake of getting Uta to use her legendary powers.
Speaking of her powers, Uta is the greatest diva in the entire world of One Piece. It is believed that her voice has the power to change the entire world. According to the previous teaser, Uta's voice can either bring eternal happiness or endless imprisonment, depending on how she uses it. The plot of the film is most certainly going to be centered around that, with the villain trying to use her voice for evil purposes. Uta also has wings so it's possible for her to be one of the sky races but it is more likely for her wings to come from a Devil Fruit ability. This is because Uta's wings seem to appear inconsistently in the movie. In some scenes, they're there and in others, they're not present. What's more, Uta's wings seem to have two colors as well. With her right wing being red and the left one being white. All this could be related to her powers.
Shanks' Appearance In One Piece Film: Red
Shanks is certainly going to appear in One Piece Film: Red - that's for certain. The teaser opened with a flashback scene from Shanks so it should be a given for him to be in more than a few flashbacks in the movie. However, that's not all. Shanks is also going to be in the movie in the current timeline. His character design for the movie is completely new, meaning he'll, at the very least, appear in it. Shanks' poster also reads "Would you mind not poking your nose in my private life?" which suggests that he's aware of what Uta is up to.
The movie might also give fans a deeper look into Shanks' beliefs as a pirate. In the last scene of the teaser, Shanks goes on to say that there is no peace and equality in the world. This is perhaps our first outlook on his core beliefs, but it is likely that Shanks intends to create just that; a world with peace and equality.
Regardless, fans shouldn't expect him to meet Luffy as that's a promise of a lifetime for the two. Shanks will definitely meet him in the manga after the Wano Country arc. For now, his role in Film Red has several question marks over it but rest assured, Oda will deliver, like always.
One Piece Film: Red is set to premiere across theaters in Japan on August 6, 2022.