Joe Manganiello has played werewolves, supervillains, and Magic Mike strippers, but his role as Mr. 0 in One Piece Season 2 might be his most deliciously evil yet. The former True Blood star steps into the One Piece universe as the mysterious leader of Baroque Works, a secret society of assassins that makes the Straw Hats’ journey through the Grand Line significantly more dangerous. And by dangerous, I mean “constantly trying to kill them while looking fabulous.”
Manganiello’s Mr. 0 is the kind of villain who pulls strings from behind a literal puff of smoke, because subtlety is for people who aren’t secretly one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. That’s right—Mr. 0 is actually Sir Crocodile, a government-sanctioned pirate with sand-based powers and a serious grudge against anyone who gets in his way. Manganiello plays this dual identity with the kind of swagger that suggests he’s having the time of his life, which is impressive considering he’s wearing a fur coat in what appears to be a tropical climate.
The Baroque Works organization is a masterpiece of eccentric villainy. Co-showrunner Joe Tracz explains that their agents range from “twisted artists who use wax and paint as torture devices” to “fashionistas with serious firepower” to actual “murderous animals.” Many have Devil Fruit powers—some incredibly scary, some totally ridiculous, all challenging to our heroes.
It’s the kind of creative chaos that makes One Piece distinct from other adventure stories, and Manganiello’s Mr. 0 sits at the top of this pyramid of weird.
Joining Manganiello in the Baroque Works roster is an impressively diverse cast. Charithra Chandran (Bridgerton) plays Miss Wednesday, a fierce assassin with her own secret agenda who first encounters the Straw Hats inside a whale’s belly, because of course she does. Lera Abova is Miss All Sunday, Mr. 0’s enigmatic right hand with the Flower-Flower Fruit power to sprout limbs from any surface.
David Dastmalchian brings his signature intensity to Mr. 3, an egocentric strategist who turns victims into wax art installations. Camrus Johnson and Jazzara Jaslyn play the explosive duo Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine, who combine bomb powers with weight manipulation for maximum destruction.
What makes Baroque Works so effective as antagonists is their specificity. Each agent has a distinct personality, power set, and fashion sense that makes them memorable even when they’re failing to kill the protagonists. Manganiello’s Mr. 0 oversees this chaos with aristocratic disdain, treating the Straw Hats as minor inconveniences until they become major problems. His appearances in Episodes 4 and 8 suggest a slow-burn villain who becomes more dangerous as the season progresses.
The live-action adaptation has taken some liberties with the source material, expanding roles and adjusting timelines, but the spirit of Baroque Works remains intact. These are villains who take themselves incredibly seriously while doing objectively ridiculous things, and Manganiello understands this balance perfectly. His Mr. 0 is menacing enough to generate genuine tension but theatrical enough to fit into Oda’s world.
For Manganiello, this role represents another entry in his growing genre filmography. After True Blood, he became a reliable presence in fantasy and science fiction—Spider-Man, Sabotage, Rampage, Archenemy. One Piece allows him to play in a sandbox that’s simultaneously more colorful and more dangerous than his previous work. The result is a villain who feels like he stepped out of the manga panels while still being grounded enough to work in live-action.
One Piece Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix, and the Baroque Works storyline represents the season’s central threat. With Manganiello leading this eccentric army of assassins, the Straw Hats have their work cut out for them. The Grand Line was always going to be dangerous, but nobody warned them about the fashion.
Stream One Piece Season 2 on Netflix now and watch Joe Manganiello lead the Baroque Works assassins against the Straw Hats.
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