One Piece fans have always known to expect the unexpected. That’s been especially true during the final act of the Egghead arc but still, I doubt anyone was expecting chapter 1110 to introduce something that seems to deliberately be, for all the world, a Dune reference.
The surprise isn’t that One Piece has never referenced other pieces of pop culture. For example, the Navy admirals are all modeled after famous Japanese actors. Emporio Ivankov is basically just Dr. Frankenfurter. Throw a stone and you’ll find a Dragon Ball reference, etc, etc.
But still, having a Dune reference in One Piece at this particular cultural juncture, where everyone and their grandma is talking about Dune: Part Two, feels particularly jarring in the most delightful way imaginable. I doubt the timing is anything more than coincidence—after all, mangaka Eiichiro Oda teased this giant worm over a year ago. But a beautiful coincidence it truly is.
Because now existent within the world of One Piece is the Dune-iest thing in all of Dune-dom: the giant sandworm. And we all know the people love big worm.
Giant sandworm-sized spoilers for One Piece’s Egghead arc—and general One Piece lore—ahead!
Countdown to Worm Town
The incredible—and terrifying—catch is that the sandworm in One Piece is not a creature you can find in the wild. It’s a power. For a person.
Chapter 1110 of the One Piece manga re-introduced us to the Five Elders, who we’ve previously understood to be the highest public-facing authority of the all-powerful, highly authoritarian World Government. Of course, the actual head of the World Government is Imu, whose very existence is seemingly a complete secret to everyone except the Five Elders themselves.
At least, Imu was a secret to everyone until Luffy’s brother Sabo witnessed them sitting on the Empty Throne and escaped to tell the tale. Earlier in the Egghead arc, we learned that King Cobra of Alabasta came to talk to the Five Elders and was killed after the five seemingly creaky old men transformed into five somethings and killed him. We did not see the full details of their transformations then, but it was abundantly clear that these monsters were scary as hell.
In fact, notice I haven’t described these transformations as “Devil Fruit powers.” The current hypothesis circulating around the One Piece fandom is that these are not Devil Fruit powers, but something else entirely. That hunch was strengthened in chapter 1110, when Eiichiro Oda properly introduced the Five Elder’s powers, but did not include the usual “so-and-so Fruit user” explanation alongside it.
In the first full two-page spread in One Piece in over 300 chapters, we were re-introduced to the Five Elders via their transformations, which draw from folklore from around the world. There’s Gyuki, Itsumade, Fengxi, Bakotsu, and … Sandworm.
SANDWORM.
Yes. One of the Five Elders, St. Shepherd Ju Peter, can transform into a Sandworm.
And yes, the Japanese original really is “サンドワーム,” which is written in katakana (used for foreign words) and reads literally as “sandowaamu,” or “sandworm.”
Sure, yes, there is the legend of the Mongolian Death Worm, which in turn inspired the Sandworms of Dune. But Oda called it a “Sandworm,” which is the exact term used in Frank Herbert’s novel. This is, without a doubt, a Dune reference.
Does Luffy get eaten by the Sandworm within the chapter? Yes. Does the worm get cut in two to free him? Yes. But I wouldn’t worry about that being the end of the Sandworm’s presence in One Piece. I get the feeling it’s very much not dead.
Of course, fans are having the times of their lives with this unforeseen Dune and One Piece crossover. My personal favorite take is artist Steve Yurko’s art for this week’s episode of the One Piece Podcast, which references—as is strictly necessary—the now-infamous Sandworm popcorn bucket.
I don’t know if I can fully communicate the absolute glee in having a decades-long-awaited reveal of the power-up of a 26-year-running series’ major villain just so happen to reference a separate piece of culture which just so happens to be happen a moment at this exact time. It’s truly delicious. Congratulations, everyone.
(Image credit: Warner Bros. / Toei Animation)
