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Cobra Kai has always been about two things: telling a fantastic story that blends new characters with ones from the original Karate Kid movies, and being a nostalgic love letter to those first four movies.
Speaking to io9 before the debut of Cobra Kai‘s sixth and final season, creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg told us about their favorite deep, deep-cut Karate Kid jokes they’ve snuck into the show over the years, as well as a few of the lofty goals they dreamed about when the show started and can’t believe they were able to actually achieve.
Germain Lussier, io9: You guys know I love the deep-cut Karate Kid stuff and, in these first five episodes of season six, there are a few, including the one in the arcade and calling Johnny a certain name. Do you guys have a favorite moment from this season or previous ones that are such deep-cut Karate Kid things, you had to get them in there?
Josh Heald: I mean, the weirdest one that is so crowbarred in there is…
Jon Hurwitz: I knew you were gonna say it. [Laughs]
Heald: In the laser tag room. [Season three, episode five] when Cobra Kai was taking over the defunct laser tag location and Mitch is wearing a backwards backpack full of warm beers. And he offered them beers saying “Who’s for a warm one?” Which is just a weird line in general from The Karate Kid when Johnny and the original Cobra Kais pull up on the motorcycles overlooking the beach and they’re being offered warm beers, by Tommy, right? And that’s a terrible thing to offer somebody. “Who’s for a warm one? No. No one. And we felt like that was a perfect joke to play where Hawk was like, “You brought warm beers, that’s horrible. No one wants a warm beer.” That’s probably my favorite, like stupid little thing we put on the show.
Hayden Schlossberg: One of my favorite uses of a callback is in season two, episode six when Billy and all the Cobras are together and it’s a very poignant episode. We purposely made it a more dramatic episode and it ends with, you know, Tommy dying, and we treated it with all this gravitas and it made sense at the end when he has his dead body there, they zip him up in the body bag. He was the guy who said, “Put him in a body bag.” So that was like the perfect combination where if you’re not a Karate Kid fan, it all makes sense and it’s really kind of heartfelt and sad. And if you are a Karate Kid fan, there’s like a dark joke that’s happening.
“Get him a bodybag,” indeed. – Netflix Hurwitz: That one’s my favorite. And the other one, I’ll just say just the concept of—we explained Terry Silver’s behavior in Karate Kid 3 with cocaine. [Laughs] Just when he’s explaining kind of like what was going on back then and how ludicrous some of the stuff you did was.
io9: So we’re nearing the end of Cobra Kai and I can’t even imagine the whiteboard of ideas you guys had at the beginning of like, “If we get further, we get to do this. Mike Barnes, Terry Silver.” So I’m curious, what’s the one thing you really wanted to do at the beginning that you’re so happy with how it turned out when you eventually got to do it?
Schlossberg: Oh wow. I can’t really say because it’s the last five episodes of the show which are the payoffs of everything that we started. And I remember after season one, us talking about season two, but really having to figure out where we were going. We started talking about a world tournament years ago because we knew that that was one way to amp things up. But figuring out where all the characters will land, at least the main characters, is something that we’ve been talking about for a long time. And it was crazy to actually film those scenes where you’re seeing these pivotal kind of final moments. And you know, we’re really excited for fans to see that.
Up until now, I would just say prior to season six, it was just seeing Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) taking over the Valley. I knew there’d be a period of time where there’d be the darkest time in the Valley and Silver would get to reign as king. And you get to see what would have happened if Karate Kid 3 ended differently. And that was something that, I think, you hope you get to, because in the first couple of seasons, you never know if the show will kick off and do well enough—because we knew that would always be something that would have to come late in the show. We didn’t want to throw Terry Silver into the mix early on. So everything involving Terry Silver and how that story finished was something that you’re just, you’re thankful that you get to a season five to start telling that stuff.
Cobra Kai guest star Elisabeth Shue – Netflix Hurwitz: I think everything that Hayden said I would agree with, but one thing that I’ll just throw out there is Ali. Ali (Elisabeth Shue) showing up, that was something that early on we were talking about bringing her back. As young fans of The Karate Kid, we were disappointed not to see her after the first movie. So it was one of those things that we were really determined to do is bring her back into the story. And when we got to do that, that was something that was really special and I’ll never forget those days on set.
Cobra Kai season six part one debuts Thursday, July 18, on Netflix. Check back then for our review and more from the show’s creators, and catch up on the previous seasons here.
