Oda has just confirmed that at least one more person will join the Straw Hats!

Recently, an interview with Oda-sensei was published in the Yomiuri Shimbun (Newspaper) in Japan. Here are highlights of the interview:

One Piece is “80% done”

At least one more person will join the Straw Hat Crew

Oda initially planned to assemble a crew of 10 people within 1.5 years

Oda implemented a timeskip because pre-timeskip Luffy was too weak to challenge the Yonko

Oda’s favorite characters are Ivankov and Bon Clay

Oda adores Buggy while Luffy is his ideal child

Oda is grateful to his female fans, but his main target audience will always be young males. He doesn’t intentionally put any sort of message (inspirational, political, or otherwise) in his manga.