Popverse's top stories of the day

• Matthew Lillard embraces fans & his fellow Scream villain Skeet Ulrich as he talks for the first time about his return for Scream 7
• WATCH: NBC's Hannibal stars Mads Mikkelsen & Hugh Dancy reunite for Seattle's ECCC 2025
• MEMBERS ONLY: Popverse Jump: The case for giving the Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movies a worldwide release date - and why it could be bigger in America than Japan

You can’t stop a pop culture force like One Piece. Its dominance of the anime and manga world has seen it spread to live-action, the skies above New York, and video games. It isn’t just the One Piece games that feature the Straw Hats, either; recently, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 included a pretty obvious homage to Luffy and his iconic Straw Hat if you know where to look.

The detail was spotted by various people on Reddit before it started popping up in YouTube videos. To discover it in the game yourself, you can find a landmark in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 called “Old Massive Tree” in the southern woods. On some rocks scattered around it is a straw hat with a red brim. Picking it up adds “Strange straw hat” to your inventory.

One Piece fans will pretty quickly recognize this as a reference to Luffy’s straw hat, which was given to him by his mentor Shanks, and has become the symbol of his pirate crew. However, the straw hat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s placement itself is a reference to one of the most meaningful moments in the One Piece anime.

In the One Piece anime, a two-year time skip happens between episodes 516 and 517. In the manga, it is between chapters 597 and 598. During this time, the Straw Hat crew is off training separately, with Luffy training with Rayleigh on Rusukaina Island to control his Haki abilities. Before he goes off to fight the endless waves of monsters on the island, Luffy places his iconic hat on a group of rocks at the base of a large tree.

So the straw hat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn’t a coincidence. It is a very clear reference to One Piece and evidence that someone on the development team was a big fan of Luffy. Now we just need to find a knight with three swords.

THE ONE PIECE IS REAL...ly important to Popverse! That's why we've put together the key articles to keep your fandom of the manga-turned-anime-turned-live-action-show alive:

• How to watch One Piece One Piece in chronological and release order (All 1,100+ episodes plus the movies!)
• When the next episode of One Piece is coming
• The One Piece English cast shared the life lessons they've learned playing the Straw Hats for nearly 20 years
• Why One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy is the perfect hero for the dark times ahead
• Every difference between the live-action One Piece and the original manga
• One Piece Gear 5 Form: Everything we know about Luffy's latest transformation
• Wondering what ethnicity and nationality the One Piece pirates are? Here is what Oda himself has to say
• Ranking the One Piece anime's arcs, from best to worst
• Why is One Piece more popular now that the anime is 25 years old? We asked around and found out
• The English cast of One Piece explain what they love about Eiichiro Oda's storytelling - "He's a genius!"