This article contains spoilers for One Piece's Final Saga.
One Piece is in an incredible phase right now, where Oda is specifically focusing on some of the biggest mysteries of the world, most of which concern the Void Century and the kingdom that was lost to time, and of course, Joy Boy. It seems that everything in the Final Saga of One Piece points to the Void Century, and this also includes Luffy's Devil Fruit, the Gomu Gomu no Mi, the true name of which is the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika.
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Luffy ate his Devil Fruit around the age of 7, back in Foosha Village. Since then, he's used this power incredibly well, and even managed to awaken it, as was seen during the events of the Wano Country arc. That said, Luffy wasn't always the user of this Devil Fruit. Before him, there was another user, and it seems that Oda has already dropped some big hints about it.
One Piece Film Red Was Supposed To Reveal The Former Gomu Gomu no Mi User
- Oda Wanted Film Red To Be About the Gomu Gomu no Mi User
- The Idea Was Later Changed
While fans know Luffy to be the current user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, the former user of the fruit remains unknown right now. Most fans assume that Joy Boy was the previous user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Technically, that's not a wrong assumption. After all, Oda did explicitly state that Joy Boy held the same power as Luffy, and that he also went on to awaken the Devil Fruit. In other words, Joy Boy had access to Gear 5 as well and with the power of Nika, he fought the 20 Kings — a battle in which he ultimately died.
I'm Monkey D. Luffy. I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi and now I'm a rubber human! — Luffy
All this is quite clear, but Joy Boy was not the last user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi before Luffy. In fact, Joy Boy died 800 years ago, so for 8 centuries, this Devil Fruit has most likely found a few users.
Fans wrongly assume Joy Boy to be the last user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi due to the Five Elders’ statement, where they said the fruit hasn't been awakened for centuries. “Awakened” is the keyword here. This practically means that this fruit was eaten by others before, but Joy Boy was the last user of Gear 5 before Luffy.
One Piece Film Red’s Original Plot
Tying this all up to Film Red, Oda initially wanted this film to be about the previous user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi (not Joy Boy). This was a very special idea that he had. The premise of the movie would be time travel. Through some means, Luffy and his crew would travel back in time to meet the last user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Exactly how many years back this movie would take the fans is unknown. But, it would have to be at least more than 12 years, at the very least.
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I didn't want Film Red to be about another strong old man. I wanted to try something new. — Eiichiro Oda 2021
The Identity Of The Former User Of The Gomu Gomu No Mi Is A Secret
Oda Is Keeping The Secret Close To Him
Unfortunately, Oda decided to scrap this idea, and instead chose the story of Uta to be explored in One Piece Film Red, which is why the identity of this person isn't known yet. But, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Oda previously stated that any story that he uses in movies is usually non-canon and not worth being included in the manga. The fact that Oda chose to cut this out means that there is a chance fans will find out who the last user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi before Luffy was at some point in the Final Saga.
One Piece Chapter 1158 will be out in two weeks. As usual, One Piece is going to drop on Sunday. In Japan, One Piece drops at 12AM JST on Monday. However, the vast majority of international readers will see the chapter available on August 31. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1158 is August 31, 2025. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus.
- Release Date
- October 20, 1999
- Network
- Fuji TV
- Directors
- Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
- Studio
- Toei Animation
- Creator
- Eiichiro Oda
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Pluto TV
