Jump Festa 2023 just ended in Japan, and with it comes Oda’s yearly tease about the future of the manga! Here is his full message translated by me!

To everyone attending Jump Festa, As well as everyone else
tuning in, hello. This is world-famous idol Eiichiro uta. Kidding.

Now then, this year the Wano Country Saga finally ended,
and while the manga’s been plenty busy, Film RED also
became a massive box office hit, so it’s been one mind-blowing
year. All One Piece staff members were cheering of joy.

Uta-chan’s upcoming “red and white” tv tour will be airing for
the following days Only as well, so I hope you can enjoy it.
Also, the trading card game actually turned out to be pretty
fun. Right before this, I asked my editors “gimme the rare
cards” but they told me “that’s a desire not even the likes
of us can be granted access to”… what the hell?!!

This long story has already been going on for over 25 years,
and recently I’ve noticed that more and more younger readers
are getting into it, which makes me happy. I know I’ve been
saying Final Saga this and Final Saga that, but it’s not gonna
end as quickly as I’m making it sound, so I’d recommend not
stressing over it and just reading comfortably.

Next year, the game that’s been 6 years in development,
One Piece Odyssey, will finally release! And, the One Piece
Hollywood Live Action is making progress. For now we have
the base footage of Season 1. So much went on behind the
scenes, but if I’m being honest, the most worried person
in the world that this will turn out good is me LOL… but it
actually looks amazing!!!

And finally, regarding the One Piece source material in 2023,
it’ll be a type of story that will have you going “No way!!
That person and that person are gonna be fighting?!”
If I were to give it a descriptive title, I’d call it a
‘Great Battle Royale’!! I hope no one dies~!!”

Please look forward to the One Piece series this following
year like always!! ~Eiichiro Oda

Below is also what Oda promised for the future of the manga in each of the previous Jump Festas:

So what we can expect from next year is:

• Two certain characters fighting in some capacity, likely to be an anticipated match
• A grand battle royale where several groups will fight all against each other
• Some characters possibly dying

Who do you think these are going to be? Let me know!