WARNING: MAJOR spoilers from Cobra Kai season 6, part 1.
Summary
Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg discussCobra Kaiseason 6, part 1, and how the first five episodes play into the final season. With the stakes higher than ever for Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso,Cobra Kaiseason 6 is finally underway as the final season of theKarate Kidspinoff puts the senseis and their students up for one last adventure. To give the Netflix series a proper sendoff,Cobra Kaiseason 6is being split into three parts, as part 1 has officially arrived on the popular streaming service.
Followingthe ending toCobra Kaiseason 5, the final season is all about the Sekai Taikai, with season 6, part 1, serving as the ultimate preparation for the biggest tournament. However, with John Kreese officially back in the picture, stronger and more dangerous than ever, Miyagi-Do Karate has their work cut out for them. WhileCobra Kaiseason 6, part 1, ends with some severe shake-ups, including switching of sides, and dynamics that are up in the air more than ever.
Why Cobra Kai Season 6 Took So Long To Make
Cobra Kai season 6 premieres almost two years following the release of season 5 on Netflix, and many factors can be blamed for its elongated delay.
Screen RantinterviewedCobra Kaishowrunners Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg to dissect season 6, part 1, and ask what led the creative team to the decisions they made for the characters in the first five episodes. Throughout the interview, theCobra Kaitrinity broke down major episodes like episodes 4 and 5, discussed the power dynamics going in new directions, and expanded on the legacy of Mr. Miyagi.
Cobra KaiShowrunners Break Down Season 6, Part 1
Screen Rant: As we’re now approaching the premiere, have you guys been looking at theories and what people are saying about what’s coming up? What are you thinking so far?
Jon Hurwitz: We’re seeing a little bit. It’s interesting with the first 5. You put a trailer out there and, normally when you make a trailer, it has 10 episodes to work with and there’s a little more that you could show. Whereas in this, because there’s 5 episodes, you’re hiding more things. It’s fun to see people speculating about what’s in Miyagi’s box and seeing different speculation about the conflict between characters. We enjoy this every season - we love how the fans are their own version of a writers room, and they’re thinking, ‘Oh, I think it’s gonna be this, I think it’s gonna be that,’ and it’s all based on a few little morsels that they have to work with and it’s a lot of fun.
Who Are You, Really, Mr. Miyagi?
Let’s talk about Mr. Miyagi for a second, because I’m always fascinated by how each season has always expanded upon a little bit more about what he has done, and what he has done previously, that we didn’t really see in the movies. How does this haunt Daniel? Anytime he learns anything new about Mr. Miyagi, his entire world is turned upside down. How does this follow him throughout parts 2 and 3?
Josh Heald: This is giving the glimpse of what if you find something out about someone you respect, who’s no longer here, that challenges your opinion of them or that starts to create at least a treasure map that will challenge your opinion of them? How does that land differently than just learning something that’s a different kind of positivity, or a different kind of neutral wwhen you don’t have that person here any longer to ask about? Your mind can run wild with the possibilities with seemingly no answers in terms of, ‘Does that mean everything I was taught inauthentic? Does that mean I was lied to?’ and we’re trying to deal with the humanity of what it is to lose somebody and never know the whole person, which is a little more real.
You can go your whole life and, you never know, some aspect of a parent or grandparent that may have influenced [of] who they were, at least a certain part of their life, or a certain phase of their life, that maybe they didn’t share with you, maybe they didn’t dwell on, maybe they didn’t consider that, the part of themselves that they wanted to show to you because of their relationship with you. But that still can feel bad - it’s bad when you’re so close with somebody it can feel, ‘How could they not let me know their full self?’ So we tried to get into the reality of that and the groundedness of what it is for Daniel to start seeing Miyagi as a person, as a human being and not a saintly figure.
The Six Champions
Episode 4 is one of my favorite episodes of the whole series, because I was thinking, all of this pair-ups, all the scenarios, how many drafts did this script go through before landing on the final version? Was it always planned that these are the six, and you are just going to find your way to the circumstances?
Hayden Schlossberg: There were a lot of discussions in the writers room about how many people should go to the Sekai Taikai and which characters? In a way, it’s kind of like you’re in the front office of a sports team, figuring out who’s going to make the cut. That was intentionally what the story was for Johnny and Daniel. We wanted them to butt heads over the fifth and sixth people. It felt obvious that, Miguel, Robbie, Sam and Tory would make the cut if there were six people.
But you start to question, ‘Okay, who would that number six be?’ You see the characters doing it on the show, but yeah, in the writers room, w had these spirited discussions and I think, at the end of the day, as important as who is making the team, it’s equally important what is the story for the character, and sometimes not making the team is the story and more interesting for the character. Those were the things that we talked about in determining who made the cut.
Josh Heald: You saw that Robbie is the captain of the team and Miguel is not the captain of the team. In this spirit of discussions for episode 4, there was a contingent at one point that was advocating for Miguel not even to make it in the top six. There was a version of that going on there and you end up working with every permutation of, ‘Well, if Miguel doesn’t make it in the top six, you’re gonna want him to be there in in Barcelona, so he’s going to be the one who’s getting the spot when Tory leaves.’
But then what are the fights there? You’re thinking of the fight in episode 5, in that scenario, maybe it would have been Hawk versus Robbie, or Demetri versus Robbie or somebody else versus Robbie, in a way that we felt as a group had less juice to us, and less interests, less complicated elements going forward with them because of their relationship with one another, and, with Johnny. There’s a lot that goes into it, but the thing you bring up [with] loving episode 4, we love episode 4, too.
One of the things that was really fun about that was that between Kenny, Devin, Anthony, Demetri, and Hawk, [there’s] all these different characters that aren’t always the focus - it’s usually Miguel, Robbie, Sam, and Tori. All of those characters have their moments to shine and moments to focus on what’s important to them, and the choices that they’re making. It was just a really fun dynamic episode in general.
The Death Of Tory’s Mother
Going back to when you guys originally created the character and brought her into the fold, was it always planned that this was the fate her mom was always going to face?
Josh Heald: There are some “Always” and there are some “Sometimes” when it comes to the writers room. After season 1, it became a living organism, we had season 1 completely in our heads when we entered the writers room for season 1, and it was more just telling the troops what we’re doing, who’s going where, we take the castle, and we do it. Once Kreese enters the story, we started asking ourselves questions like, ‘Okay, we knew he was coming back, where’s he living?’ That began a spirited discussion, the idea of Tory coming in and creating this antagonist for Sam, left a lot of new questions that we had to consider and some answers we had long leads for, and some became branches of a tree that was still growing.
But we always knew that [her] mom would go, we didn’t know exactly when, but we knew we wanted it to be at a crucial moment for her character. It wasn’t just something that’s happening and we’re cutting to that and seeing a more traditional melodrama about a kid going through something. We wanted it to have the Cobra Kai gasoline and the sparks that come with that. This was the worst possible time that this could have happened, which made it the best possible time to do it. And it it just becomes the the alchemy of putting together the recipe in the writers room about when and why and how, and the pieces of the puzzle have to fit together.
Miyagi-Do Karate Vs. Cobra Kai Once More
On the subject of Kreese, we learned more about his and Kim’s dynamic and how they met each other. We see his influence now with her students and, even though they’re standing together at the end of episode 5, I have this fear that Kim is going to regret deeply working with Kreese. Can you speak about that as we go into parts 2 and 3?
Hayden Schlossberg: I’ll just say this: I think that, for Kreese and Kim, it all boils down to how true are they to Master Kim and his teachings? We get a glimpse of Master Kim in the first five and you see that he’s the creator of Cobra Kai. Even though Kreese created the name of it, Kim created the way of the fist. I’ll just say the next two blocks are about them unleashing fury on Miyagi-Do with no mercy and the question is going to be, are they willing to actually go through with that? Is one going to cave?
For now, what we really wanted to do was tweak them both, going into the second block where you see, for, for Kreese’s character, he has been called out by Master Kim, in a way, of being somebody who’s shown too much mercy! [laughs] You think of him as this horrible guy, but Master Kim can find that one soft spot in him and that soft spot is his student in episode two send Kreese on a journey to rediscover the cobra within him. So this is the most dangerous Kreese that we’ve ever seen. To that end, Kim Da-Eun has to deal with that, but she also has to deal with the expectations of her grandfather. There’s a lot of motivation to unleash hell and I think both of them have their reasons to prove to Master Kim that they’re not going to show mercy.
More Karate Kid Connections In Cobra Kai Season 6
The fans always love it when there are connections to the pastKarate Kidfilms. Is there anything you can tease about faces from the past we may see when the show comes back this Fall?
Jon Hurwitz: I won’t spoil, but I’ll say that in Part 2, there will be a character from a Karate Kid movie in the past who shows up in the middle five, so there’s something coming. There’s somebody coming who fans have seen in the past, that’s all I’ll say.
AboutCobra KaiSeason 6, Part 1
With Cobra Kai eliminated from the Valley, our senseis and students must decide if and how they will compete in the Sekai Taikai — the world championships of karate. Cobra Kai is written and executive produced by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg via their production company, Counterbalance Entertainment. Will Smith, James Lassiter, and Caleeb Pinkett executive produce for Westbrook Entertainment along with Susan Ekins in association with Sony Pictures Television. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka also serve as executive producers.
Be sure to check outScreen Rant’sotherCobra Kaiseason 6, part 1 interviews:
Cobra Kaiseason 6 - part 1 is now streaming on Netflix, with part 2 set to arrive on November 28, followed by part 3 in 2025.
Cobra Kai
Cast
Cobra Kai is a sequel series continuing the narrative of the Karate Kid saga, set 30 years after the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament. It focuses on Johnny Lawrence seeking redemption by reopening the Cobra Kai dojo, reigniting his rivalry with Daniel LaRusso, who strives to maintain balance in his life.
