‘Cobra Kai’ Bosses on Johnny and Daniel’s ‘Bad Marriage’ and [SPOILER] Turning to the Dark Side
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers about Season 6 Part 1 of “Cobra Kai,” now streaming on Netflix.
“Cobra Kai” never dies…until it does. Part 1 of the sixth and final season of “Cobra Kai” — the Netflix hit set in the “Karate Kid” universe — has dropped, at long last. And this time, the drama revolves around the ultimate championship for the show’s characters, at the international karate tournament, Sekai Taikai.
More from Variety
The catch is that only six of the Miyagi-Do fighters can make it to the world competition in Barcelona. Miguel (Xolo Maridue?a), Tory (Payton List), Samantha (Mary Mouser), Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), Devon (Oona O’Brien) and the rest of the karate crew will have to battle it out.
Meanwhile, Kreese (Martin Kove) and Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) are also set to head to the Sekai Taikai, with their own vicious fighters from their Japanese team, the Kreese’s new generation of Cobra Kai comptetitors. But showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg say that Kreese’s team may not be the only team Miyagi-Do has to worry about at the world championship.
“Cobra Kai” first premiered as a scripted YouTube original in 2018, and told the story of what had happened to the adversaries from the 1984 “Karate Kid” film. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, respectively, continue the movie’s story, finding the two men in very different places — though still physically in the San Fernando Valley, of course — at at the start of the show. Daniel is a successful car dealer, with a wife and two kids, whereas Johnny had never gotten past his humiliating high-school defeat at Daniel’s hands (or foot, to be precise), and ran Cobra Kai, a seedy martial arts studio, with a vicious take-no-prisoners philosophy. After they crossed paths again, they eventually found common ground, and now are partners of a sort, teaching the students of Miyagi-Do — even though they continue to bicker and argue constantly.
The show moved from YouTube to Netflix from its third season on, and has found great success there. In January 2023, Netflix announced that Season 6 would be its last. In May, the streamer detailed that the sixth season would be 15 episodes, rolling out in batches of five. (Part 2 will drop on Nov. 15, with the final part streaming next year.)
In an interview with Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg, the trio of showrunners talk about ending “Cobra Kai” on their own terms, how they keep up the conflict between Johnny and Daniel, what’s next for Tory now that she’s gone back to the dark side — and saying goodbye to the show after six seasons.
This is the first time that the show is having a three-part drop, with five episodes in each batch – was that always planned?
Jon Hurwitz: Yeah, that was the plan. When we finished Season 5, we had our conversations with Sony and Netflix, talking about what’s next. Ten episodes, which is our typical season, didn’t feel like enough for us to wrap things up. We wanted to come in for a landing, but we wanted to make sure that we were landing all the planes in the best possible way.
When we landed on 15, it felt natural to us to split it up into three parts, three chapters, three acts. Whenever we’re writing “Cobra Kai,” even in all the prior seasons, they’d be 10 episodes, but we’d write to a midpoint. We’d write through five episodes, and then plan for the back half. This was a similar writing experience, except having the real estate of 15 episodes.
Did you know from the start that you were going to end this first batch in Barcelona at Sekai Taikai, or were there other possible endings for Part 1?
Hayden Schlossberg: Episode 5 ends exactly how we talked about it. When we first met with the writers, we knew that the first part would basically be about the preseason. We want to make sure each part builds, and gets bigger and bigger. It made sense that first part of the sixth season is about the build up towards the Sekai Taikai. And like any preseason, there is drama and tension within the team itself of who makes a cut, getting ready for what you’re about to face, coming together as a team — all the competitiveness that happens between teammates.
That’s something that we haven’t seen yet on the show. Up until now, it’s really just been rivals on opposite dojos. Now we have our characters that have resolved their differences and come together, but because of the promise of this glory that’s coming in Barcelona, everything that’s gone on in their past ends up playing a role, and their friendships get tested. That was always for us the drama of the first drop, and it naturally had this kind of fun end, where you’re like, “OK, here it is. Let the games begin.”
Can you tease what are in the second parts, if we’re already at Sekai Taikai? Will the second batch of five be the tournament?
Hurwitz: We can’t get too specific. But the second five takes place at the tournament in Barcelona. You’ve seen a lot of All-Valleys before in the “Karate Kid” movies, and “Cobra Kai,” but this tournament is a whole other level. As Mike Barnes tells us in Episode 4, they’re going to test the competitors in ways that are well beyond what they’re used to. It’s intense. People have died in the past; it’s an insane tournament.
The fun that we had in the writers’ room was thinking about what that can be, and what kinds of fights we can have — what makes it different, and a great team event. There’s a lot of drama while they’re in Barcelona. There’s a ton of fighting.
Cobra Kai has been training across the world to take on our Miyagi-Do kids, but there’s 14 other teams. That’s part of the fun of this: We get to see teams from all over the world, and realize that maybe it’s not just Cobra Kai or Miyagi-Do we have to worry about. There’s plenty of top-shelf fighters. We cast a number of fighters who are world champions themselves in real life. Even in the first five, you met Brandon H. Lee, who plays Kwan — he’s a world karate champion. We have more of that kind of thing going on in the second five.
You mentioned Mike Barnes – it was lovely seeing Sean Kanan again in the show. Can audiences look forward to seeing anyone else from the “Karate Kid” universe make a comeback within the next two parts?
Josh Heald: We cannot confirm who, but yes, there’s at least one more “Karate Kid” legacy cast member coming back for the next couple of parts.
Johnny and Daniel have obviously been rivals throughout the entirety of the “Karate Kid” story, but we finally saw them team up for what seemed to be for good. The show is really about them! How have you balanced keeping them in conflict, while still working together for this final tournament?
Schlossberg: Their relationship is an evolution. When we talk about their characters in the writers’ room, we just want it to continue in a way that’s natural and that isn’t repeating what we’ve already done. The one thing that is a constant is they have two totally different philosophies. It’s a natural odd couple, and that’s never going to change in any environment that they’re going to be in. That creates conflict. But the question is what do they do with that conflict.
When they first came together at the end of Season 3, it was immediately tested in Season 4. We wanted it to be where this season, they try their best to come together. You see at the end of Episode 5, their differing philosophies are just always going to cause conflict, but they don’t want to split up because the kids are too important. It’s kind of like a bad marriage going into the second drop, where they know they’re in it for the kids, but the spark is gone.
And so the question is: Can that spark be rekindled in Barcelona?
All viewers want is for them finally to be friends, and stay friends. Has it been hard to keep up the conflict between the two of them?
Hurwitz: We try to put them in situations that would naturally lead to the conflict. In the first five episodes, they both went into prepping for the Sekai Taikai with the best of intentions. But, these are two men with a different set of circumstances in their lives.
For Johnny, the Sekai Taikai is an opportunity for him to achieve his dream of being a sensei, having his own dojo and being successful at that, as he has this new family. He just wants to be able to have his dream job entering this next phase of life.
For Daniel, he’s got a bunch of car dealerships. He’s financially successful. I wouldn’t say it’s a hobby for him, because it’s more than that, and important for him to be passing along Mr. Miyagi’s lessons — which have helped him in life in so many ways. They each have their own agendas, they each have their own beliefs, and they both believe that they’re preparing these kids for this tournament. The conflict there felt natural with what’s happening, and as we continue through the rest of the season, we’ll see where the path goes for them. These are two guys who both have kind hearts, and just different points of view. The question is, are they going to be able to be at peace with one another in a real way, and for good?
Audiences have seen redemption arcs for plenty of characters throughout the series, including Johnny himself! Is there any possible redemption for Kreese?
Heald: There’s always a possibility, but Kreese is a tough nut to crack. Taking Johnny on his journey, we always talked about taking him not from a one to a 10, but more like a one to a two. Kreese is worse. Kreese is the dark side: He’s always been the Darth Vader of this series.
We’ve shown moments of Kreese having humanity, and every time that’s happened, he’s been smacked in the face with a dose of his own medicine. There’s always something there to remind us that Cobra Kai and that philosophy that was born from Kreese does not allow for gray areas. It’s a really fun character to consider as we head into the final 15 episodes, because I think there really is a strong desire to see is there any love left in that heart under all that volcanic-hardened-over soul? Or is this really the beginning of the endgame of darkness for him?
Where is Terry Silver? Will we see him this season?
Schlossberg: Terry Silver is off the board in the Karate Wars game at the end of Season 5. We can’t say what’s going to happen in terms of him returning or not. All we can say is he is somebody who has the resources to return if he wanted to. Terry Silver was a threat for the past two seasons, and we’re enjoying him being not really a part of the story, and focusing in on the new threats as they go into Barcelona.
It was obviously a huge shock to see Tory go back to Cobra Kai –– what did the decision process behind that entail?
Heald: We loved writing Tory’s arc this season. She’s a character that has an aggression about her. She came into the show almost like a wild animal that had her guard up, and was ready to fight. It’s been really an enjoyable journey to first visit that character as a physical rival for Sam, as as a romantic partner to Robbie, and part of this love triangle and karate violence triangle. It’s been great to kind of land her character at the beginning of Season 6 in this place where that rivalry has melted away, but it’s left in its wake a great unknown, and more questions than answers in terms of what comes next.
We get into of the the haves and the have nots in terms of the expectations of what comes after high school for somebody like Sam versus somebody like Tory. That starts to get in the way a little bit; it starts to get under the skin. As we see at the end of Episode 5, Tory has dealt with the ultimate tragedy with her mother dying. It turns out to be the worst possible timing. And that’s not by accident, that’s by construction, because it gives you the best possible conflict to build from, and it gives you the most amount of empathy you can have for her at the time that she chooses Cobra Kai over Miyagi-Do But there’s also that thought, like “I know why she did it, but I really wish she didn’t. And is there a way back for her?”
Where we pick up in Part 2 is just a great place to start again. She’s over on the dark side, but it happened naturally, and you understand why. It gives a lot of rooting interest for both sides in terms of what’s going to happen.
There’s an upcoming “Karate Kid” movie – are the events in “Cobra Kai” linked to those at all?
Heald: There are no events in “Cobra Kai” that are linked to that movie, or any movies at this time. That’s parallel development in the “Karate Kid” universe. Just like when we came in shepherding this story of “Cobra Kai,” the Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith movie already existed. The overlap is that Daniel Russo will be in the new “Karate Kid” movie. We’re very excited to see what another filmmaker does with that character, and how it enhances that part of the universe.
This show has had such a long journey – going from YouTube to Netflix, and being on for six years now. What were those final days on set like?
Schlossberg: Those final days on set were very emotional. The show had six seasons, but we’d been doing it for almost seven years. There’s been a lot of ups and downs, and it’s been a crazy rollercoaster, for a lot of the actors and some of the crew and us who have been there since 2017, working together on this. When it got to 2024, and you’ve been together for what is almost two high-schools eras, it gets very emotional.
But at the same time, I feel like we all believe that Cobra Kai never dies, and that there is some way shape or form that we’re all going to come together again. Whether it’s through spinoffs, or something else that we put together — or just getting together to hang out at dinner. It was emotional, but we couldn’t be more excited to be able to end the series on our own terms. It’s so rare these days for a show to go on for six seasons to actually end the way the creators intended. We all felt like we accomplished something, and it was positive. In just one word: bittersweet.
Xolo Maridue?a has been there since the beginning — this show really started with him and Billy Zabka. What was it like to say goodbye, and work with the crew for those last few days?
Hurwitz: It’s been amazing watching Xolo’s journey. He’s such a good young man. I mean, I used to say, “He’s such a good kid,” because he’s the kid that Johnny fell in love with, and the audience’s fell in love with. We’ve seen him grow as an actor, we’ve seen his confidence grow. It’s been fun to see him succeed outside of the show. Watching him as as “Blue Beetle” was awesome.
We also see the friendships amongst the kids, and how they’ve grown. The closeness between him and Jacob Bertrand and Gianni DeCenzo, who we put those three together at a lunch table, and now they’re all really good friends and have been for a very long time. It’s really great to see a group of young people that started the show as good kids that were eager to learn, and to have such great mentors and role models in our legacy cast like Ralph Macchio, Billy Zabka, Martin Kove, Thomas Ian Griffith and more.
These kids got to see true pros who are good people, and kind and rooting for each other — and rooting for them. The kids continue to be that way themselves. It’s been seven years for these kids. Many of them were teenagers, or even younger than teenagers when they started the show. We’ve gotten to watch them grow up and they’re all coming out the other side as just wonderful people, great performers, who we hope to work with and know for the rest of our lives.
What would be the next dream spinoff for you all?
Schlossberg: There are a lot of different possibilities for spinoffs of this show. We’ve talked about all of them, and some of them we’ve been working on more than others. But we love the characters of this universe: We love the ones that we inherited from the originals, we love the ones that we created. We think about backstories for every single character, we think about continuations for from where we left off in Season 6. We think about other creative ways of continuing the stories of the characters, but also just trying to find a way to keep the comedy of Johnny alive in some way, shape or form.
We talk about all these different possibilities because we love writing for these characters. It felt natural to end the show, because every season, we keep topping ourselves like the “Rocky” movies did in the ’80s. Now it’s gotten to the international place where, if we go past here, it’ll get into major shark-jumping territory.
But you could just do exactly what we did with “Cobra Kai,” which is take a character from “The Karate Kid” and just delve into their story. We talk about that with every single character. The question for us is: What is that going to be? We’re hoping that we get a lot of different opportunities to tell more stories.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
