We already know Luffy is the new Joy Boy in One Piece. Zunesha said so himself back in Wano, and nobody in the fandom is arguing that point anymore. What we don’t know is who the original one was, the guy from 900 years ago whose name got carved into stone and turned into a legend.
That question got a lot more interesting once the Egghead Arc happened. For over a decade, Joy Boy was just a name on a Poneglyph and an apology nobody could fully explain.
Then Vegapunk’s final message dropped, Emet’s flashback showed us an actual silhouette, and suddenly, we had a face, a build, and a war to attach to the legend. So here’s where the theories stand now, ranked by how well they hold up against what Oda has actually put on the page.
3: Joy Boy Was Just a Title, Not a Person
This one used to be the leading theory before Wano, and it’s aged the worst. The idea was that Joy Boy wasn’t one specific historical figure but a role passed down, sort of like Pirate King, that different people across generations could hold whenever they lived up to it.
The problem is that Oda has since given us too much specific biography for that to hold up cleanly. Vegapunk’s chapter 1115 message confirmed Joy Boy fought a real war against the twenty kingdoms that later formed the World Government, and chapter 1122 gave him a physical body with a peg leg and a hook hand.
Legends don’t usually get anatomical detail like that. This theory still has defenders who argue that the name is reused symbolically and that Luffy being called the new Joy Boy technically supports that reading. But as a theory about who the original was, it’s been mostly answered rather than debated at this point.
2: Joy Boy Was Luffy’s Literal Ancestor
A theory that’s picked up real traction in Japanese fan circles ties Joy Boy directly into Luffy’s bloodline, framing him as the first pirate in history and the origin point of the D. clan itself. Some versions of this go as far as floating the name Monkey D. Binks, tying Joy Boy to Bink’s Sake, the song that’s followed pirates across the entire series.
It’s a compelling emotional read. Joy Boy’s Poneglyph apology to the Mermaid Princess becomes a promise that Luffy will complete it eight centuries later without even knowing it existed.
The eyepatch imagery Oda teased back in 2007 also fits, since Emet’s flashback showed Joy Boy with a wooden leg and a hook hand, which reads as classic one-eyed-pirate iconography. Nothing here is confirmed, and Oda hasn’t touched the direct-ancestor angle in the text, but the pieces line up too well to ignore.
1: Joy Boy Led the Ancient Kingdom’s Army Against the World Government
This is the theory with the most actual manga behind it, which is why it ranks first. We now know Joy Boy belonged to the Ancient Kingdom, wielded the Nika fruit’s power just like Luffy does now, and led a faction that got crushed by an alliance of twenty rulers who went on to found the World Government. Imu’s description of the D. clan as the government’s old enemies aligns almost too neatly with this faction.
That doesn’t answer everything. Vegapunk’s message cut off right before naming names, so whether Joy Boy himself carried a D. in his name is still open. But this version treats Joy Boy less as a myth and more as the losing side of history’s biggest cover-up, and it’s the read most consistent with everything confirmed on the page.
None of this gets fully answered until Oda decides it does, and with the Final Saga underway, that reveal is coming whether the fandom’s ready or not.