The Big Picture

Perri Nemiroff sits down with
Cobra Kai
creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg to discuss making Season 6.
The trio explains why the Season 6 story is best told in three parts.
They also address the status of their
Cobra Kai
spinoff series ideas.

Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg have hit the sweet spot with Cobra Kai. Not only did they develop a Karate Kid show that appealed to longtime fans, but they also crafted a series that broadened the franchise fan base by introducing a whole new generation of karate stars. The trouble is, that meant they had a significant number of characters to service. Not only did they have to continue Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence’s (William Zabka) arcs, but they also had to whip up meaningful storylines for newcomers like Mary Mouser’s Sam LaRusso, Xolo Maridueña’s Miguel Diaz, and many more. Then, Season 2 brought in Peyton List’s Tory Nichols. In Season 4, we got Dallas Dupree Young’s Kenny Payne and the return of Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver. The list goes on and on, and Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg were able to make the most of them all. And they continue to do so in the show’s final go-around.

At the start of Cobra Kai Season 6, there’s finally peace in the valley. Terry Silver’s been arrested, Cobra Kai is out of the picture, and now Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) can focus on preparing their students for the Sekai Taikai karate tournament. But, as we all well know, it can’t be that simple. In addition to the tournament pressure, Johnny’s got to start working toward establishing some stability for his growing family and, as we see in the latest Season 6 trailer, Daniel’s world is rocked when he unearths Mr. Miyagi’s (Pat Morita) buried secrets and all of Miyagi-do will have to face the unexpected, the return of John Kreese (Martin Kove) who’s now working with Kim Da-eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim).

How exactly will Cobra Kai’s Big 3 handle all of this and then some? Why did they decide to split Season 6 into three parts? How does the upcoming Karate Kid movie impact the Season 6 storyline? Get the answer to those questions and then some in the video at the top of this article or in the interview transcript below.

Why ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Will Be Better in Three Parts

PERRI NEMIROFF: When did you first find out that Season 6 would be separated into three parts, and how did that impact the writing process this time around?

JON HURWITZ: That was really our idea. We knew that we wanted to enter this as the final season of the show, but knew that 10 episodes were not enough to land all the stories that we had, so we had conversations with Sony and Netflix to find that right number. Twenty felt like too many and 15 just felt like the right spot, so it allowed for us to have it as sort of three separate chapters in our minds. It was the idea of, “We have 15. Let’s do five, five, and five. We write three acts.”

And every season of Cobra Kai, when we have 10 episodes, we write to a midpoint, and then we write to the end. So we’re used to writing in those five-episode chunks and writing those mid-season cliffhangers. Now we got to do two of them! So it was something that we were really excited about, and we’re thrilled that the fans have a long goodbye for the show.

What would you say to a fan who’s sitting there and says to themselves, “I just want all 15 episodes right now?” What is it about spreading out the release that you think is going to ultimately serve the Season 6 story better?

HAYDEN SCHLOSSBERG: It’s funny because it’s the analogy of the parents telling the kid to pace it out, you’ll enjoy it more, and it’s true. I love the desire to just binge and go nonstop, but when you think about what 15 episodes would be, you’d start to get tired. Your body would start to break down at a certain point. I just think the five-episode chunk, our show is a little bit over a half hour, so it becomes like a three-hour experience. So it’s bigger than an Avengers movie coming out in terms of runtime, and you’re gonna watch that and you’re gonna take all that in, and there’s gonna be more within the year. You don’t have to wait a season. So for us it’s like three big jolts of Karate Kid/Cobra Kai story that you get, and it should be satisfying. It’s the type of thing you’re not gonna get tired and sleepy at four in the morning trying to watch them all.

How Will the New ‘Karate Kid’ Movie Impact ‘Cobra Kai’?
IMAGE VIA PERRI NEMIROFF

The new Karate Kid movie, did that influence the writing of Season 6 at all?

JOSH HEALD: It did not. That was an arm’s-length project for Sony. That’s parallel development with the Sony feature team. We were shown an early copy of that script and did give some thoughts and notes as “take it or leave it” kind of helpfulness to that filmmaker and to the feature team. But we’re writing within our own part of the universe here and bringing everything to a head, bringing everything to fruition, and landing the mothership the way that we always intended.

I’m sure you love all of these characters dearly, but of all the main characters in the show, is there any particular one that wound up becoming more creatively fulfilling to write a Season 6 arc for than you ever could have imagined at the start?

HURWITZ: Certainly, Tory, I would say. She wasn’t even in Season 1! She came in in Season 2, she was already a compelling character as sort of a rival to Samantha. But seeing Peyton Lists’ talents, even back then, she was somebody that we loved writing towards. And over the seasons, we built out her story and this felt like a big season. With this world tournament and so much at stake for these young people as they’re entering their senior year of high school, to have somebody like her who comes from a single-parent household and a mother who is sick, and for her to be dealing with the kinds of things that she deals with in this first five just as she’s finally at peace and having good relationships with people and in a better place, it allowed for us to go to some big places for her — not just in the first five, but throughout the season, and she rose to the occasion in a major way.

Her performance in Episode 5 is next-level stuff. I hope it’s honored as such!

Image via Netflix

Related Class Is in Session for ‘School Spirits’ Season 2 The second installment of Paramount+’s spooky drama will see the return of stars including Peyton List and Milo Manheim.

Of all the main characters in the show, who do you think is ultimately going to be the most changed by the end of the series?

SCHLOSSBERG: Wow. All the characters go through a roller coaster of a character arc. At the end, I’ll just say, look at Johnny and where he started in Episode 1. He’s already come so far at the top of Season 6. But, we, of course, are gonna put him through another roller coaster this season. There’s still a significant amount of growth that that character needs, so you’ll see how that all plays out. But I really feel like Johnny is the archetypal, “Look at where he started and where he ended.”

Last we spoke in November, you were telling me that there hasn’t been much motion on a potential spin-off series. Has anything changed between then and now?

HEALD: There’s a lot that we’re thinking about. There’s not a lot we can talk about yet, but I can say, you know us, we love this franchise. We never stop talking about this franchise. We talk about contemporary spin-offs, we talk about spin-offs that take place 80 or 90 years ago, and we continue to look to the future and the fandom and our partners at Sony and Netflix to help us determine when we can begin to talk about some of that stuff.

Looking for even more Cobra Kai Season 6 – Part 1 talk? Be sure to check out my conversation with Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and Yuji Okumot below:

Cobra Kai Thirty-four years after events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a now successful Daniel LaRusso.Release Date May 2, 2018 Creator Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg Seasons 6 Streaming Service(s) Netflix

Cobra Kai Season 6 – Part 1 hits Netflix on July 18. The first five seasons are available to stream now.

Watch Here