Editor’s word: The next comprises spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 6.Final week, we stated goodbye to one of many greatest shock hits of the final decade: Cobra Kai. The collection initially premiered as a YouTube Purple unique (bear in mind YouTube Purple?) again in the summertime of 2018. I grew up watching the unique three Karate Child films, however I used to be initially skeptical. Did we actually want a sequel collection centering round a grown-up model of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka)?

But, from the opening scene, I used to be immediately hooked on the collection. Nevertheless, because of the first two seasons being on a streaming platform that hardly anybody had, I did not have many individuals in my private life who I might share my love of the present with. When Netflix scooped up the rights in the summertime of 2020, the present turned a smash hit. Quickly sufficient, everybody from my buddies, my household, and even my faculty professors had been speaking about how a lot they liked the present.

Watching the sixth and last season of Cobra Kai was a bittersweet expertise, though I did learn about that triumphant ending means earlier than anybody else. In April 2024, Netflix flew me and a number of other different members of the press out to Atlanta, Georgia for a set go to to observe the massive climatic face-off between Johnny Lawrence and Sensei Wolf (Lewis Tan) on the Sekai Taikai through the finale. Nevertheless, as a result of this was the ultimate episode of the collection, I used to be surrounded by a plethora of spoilers. We had been lucky sufficient to speak to collection creators Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, and Josh Heald, in addition to a number of the crew and solid members about making the collection’ victorious last chapter.

Bringing Johnny’s Story Full Circle

“A part of the enjoyable of writing Season 6 was how can we get him again in that gi.”

Upon stepping onto the set of the Cobra Kai finale, we had been greeted by virtually the complete most important solid decked out within the iconic Cobra Kai gis, together with Daniel LaRusso himself, Ralph Macchio.

• Heald tried to cover the finale from even the additional on set, telling us, “I used to be on a microphone the opposite day with, you understand, 400 background performers telling them it was a dream sequence, however nonetheless do not say something.”
• Cobra Kai initially started as a film thought within the early 2000s, earlier than morphing right into a collection. When the growth in streaming companies started to take off, Hurwitz and Schlossberg noticed it as a means that they might lastly get their imaginative and prescient off the bottom.
• The twin SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes occurred within the midst of filming Season 6, which based on Hurwitz and Schlossberg, gave them extra time to consider their plans for Season 6. “I imply, the strike was a little bit little bit of a break for us, however, you understand, the three of us hang around on a regular basis, so we ended up, definitely speaking about what we had been planning on doing and, you understand, gave us a little bit bit extra runway to be fascinated with some issues.”

• Regardless of the creators’ expertise of creating R-rated comedies similar to Harold & Kumar and American Reunion, they by no means had envisioned a extra edgier model of the collection, with Schlossberg including that they wrote the collection from the standpoint of the group being followers of the unique Karate Child and as a real continuation.
• Opposite to what it’s possible you’ll assume, having everybody within the Cobra Kai gis through the finale wasn’t one thing that was deliberate from the start. Hurwitz stated, “That was one thing although, that I felt like as we had been growing this season, you understand, and the place we knew the place we had been going with the Johnny and Daniel storylines. Like for Daniel, I believe it was kind of like placing him in a psychological headspace the place he can put that gi on.”
• That being stated, having Johnny within the black gi on the finish was at all times a part of the plan. Schlossberg instructed us that the concept of the Sekai Taikai was one thing that that they had been fascinated with for the reason that finish of Season 1. Hurwitz added “… we at all times considered Johnny having Cobra Kai, you understand, you see him in a Cobra Kai gi. See him in the identical spot, so we needed him to be carrying that gi once more.”
• Schlossberg continued by saying, “Getting into Season 6, you do not essentially see a world during which Johnny would ever put that gi again on. So a part of the enjoyable of writing Season 6 was how can we get him again in that gi in a means that is sensible and that feels earned and that you simply’re emotionally alongside for that journey.”
• Lewis Tan was solid as Sensei Wolf “proper all the way down to the wire,” based on Heald. They finally went to Todd Gardner, the producer of the 2021 Mortal Kombat film. Gardner was the one to counsel Tan for the function, who had simply completed up his work on the sequel and was on trip within the UK.
• Inside 48 hours, Tan was on board for the function, telling the creators that his father, a veteran stunt performer and big fan of Cobra Kai, instructed him that he needed to take the function.

Which Karate Gi is the Greatest?

“Protecting it true to itself was one thing that I take actually severely.”

Xolo Maridueña, Peyton Record, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Jacob Bertrand, Griffin Santopietro, and costume designer Frank Helmer additionally shared what their favourite gis had been over the course of the present’s six seasons.

• Maridueña’s favourite gi is between the normal black gi and the Eagle Fang gi.
• Record’s favourite gi is the unique sleeveless Cobra Kai gi.
• Mouser’s favourite gi was additionally the Cobra Kai gi.
• Buchanan’s favourite gi is the basic Miyagi-Do gi, citing that he has at all times associated essentially the most to LaRusso’s dojo.
• Bertrand’s favourite gi was the Miyagi-Do gi from Season 4, saying he likes how the heavier weight outfits give an ideal snapping sound when throwing a kick or punch.
• All through the present, Santopietro had solely worn one gi as Anthony LaRusso, the basic white Miyagi-Do gi. Though he did respect attending to placed on the Cobra Kai gi, “So, actually, it was simply good to really feel out. It is a little bit extra comfy. So, like I believe that was my factor, was that simply everybody was at all times speaking about which one was higher to put on. And I believe it is this one…”
• Helmer additionally shared his favourite gis within the present, saying: “Actually my favourite gi is attending to reinvent a number of the issues and protecting a number of the issues basic. I imply, clearly recreating the Cobra Kai basic gi, the sleeveless with the trim, modernized a little bit bit from the unique film, however protecting it true to itself was one thing that I take actually severely.”

The Complexities of Staging the Fights in ‘Cobra Kai’

Whereas on set, we had been additionally lucky sufficient to speak to stunt coordinators Ken Barefield and Don L. Lee about their work on the present and the way the fights have developed since they began engaged on the present in Season 4.

• Lee talked about what it was like when each he and Barefield had been first introduced onto the present: “Once we took over in Season 4, we simply form of needed to have, you understand, what we are saying contemporary blood, and we simply form of needed to alter it up a bit and form of get again to our roots of what the martial arts had been about.
• Lee and Barefield additionally mentioned the time crunch for choreographing the extra advanced combat scenes on the present. “It simply will depend on, you understand, the highschool combat was loopy and enjoyable to see that explode, however then a number of the huge scenes that we have had from this season, these have a very completely different vibe, however the identical complexity and the identical workarounds that this highschool combat needed to have. That, you understand, there’s at all times troubleshooting, there’s at all times attempting to determine the easiest way to do it as a result of we do not have the time that folks assume we do. We do not have the conventional film time, the place we’ve got three and a half 4 months. We’ve got TV time. It is no mercy.”
• They even gave the method its personal nickname: “We name it Cobra Kai on the fly.”
• In addition they remarked on how effectively actors like Macchio and Dallas Dupree Younger are with studying their choreography “I acquired to form of tip my hat to the actors as a result of they’re very, very, superb with choreography, all the best way from Ralph, all the best way all the way down to Dallas. There is no one between. They get the least quantity of rehearsal time any actor has ever gotten on any motion present, and also you see what they pump out on digital camera, and so they do not faux it, they do not simply telephone it in.”
• Lee and Barefield additionally talked about that they like to cover Easter eggs within the combat scenes, and there a fairly just a few that you will discover in Season 6. ” There are a variety of Easter eggs that we put in, particularly in Season 6 to the place we’ll toss something early within the season, and we cannot hit on it, and will not say something about it, however we throw it, and you then’ll see it once more, and we do it rather a lot every combat. So, like every combat that you simply see, there may be at all times a little bit Easter egg that comes again on the finish.”

What’s Subsequent for the ‘Karate Child’ Franchise?

“We might at all times say hi there once more.”

Whereas Cobra Kai could come to a detailed, that does not imply that it is the finish of the Karate Child franchise. On high of Karate Child: Legends, which is opening in theaters this summer time, there may be some potential for spin-off collection sooner or later.

• Heald reiterated that neither him nor Hurwitz and Schlossberg are straight concerned in Karate Child: Legends. “The film form of exists, in its personal universe, with Jackie Chan’s character and Ralph’s character and the assorted different characters in that story.”
• Whereas Cobra Kai does mark the top of this chapter of the franchise, Hurwitz and Schlossberg nonetheless have “important curiosity” in doing extra issues set on this planet of the Karate Child.
• Hurwitz went on to say, “We simply have a number of concepts of the sorts of issues that we wish to do. It is actually simply kind of taking the time. We have been so busy with this season that we’ve not had these conferences with Sony and Netflix the place we’re like, okay, this is the general sport plan of what we wish to do going ahead. Everybody’s conscious that we would love to do extra work. I believe there’s like a mutual feeling and I believe persons are conscious of sure worlds or like, you understand, areas that we’re speaking about.”
• Hurwitz stated that regardless that Cobra Kai is over, that does not imply we cannot see a few of these characters once more. “Whether or not it is the films we made prior to now, we’re at all times fascinated with sequels and even this collection that has, you understand, six seasons, we fall in love with our characters and by no means needed to finish. So we at all times attempt to view it as, um yeah, we’re possibly we’re ending this, however, you understand, we might at all times say hi there once more.”

Cobra Kai Season 6 Half 3 is now streaming on Netflix.