One twenty-four hour period Cobra Kai isgoing to stop being so goodthat we ’ll have to break using the undermentioned joke . But that day is not today . Season five is now on Netflixand the Karate Kid sequel show remains the best … around ! Nothing ’s ever gon na keep it down !
Truly , Cobra Kai season five is likethe culmination of everything Cobra Kaihas been about . The young characters are finally coming into their own , while the older characters are dealing with the past times in ways they never recollect potential . guinea pig in point , after teaming up with Johnny Lawrence ( William Zabka ) last year , Daniel LaRusso ( Ralph Macchio ) now must also raise his old rival Chozen ( Yuji Okumoto ) to help bring down the ultimate unfit guy , Terry Silver ( Thomas Ian Griffin ) who is so bad , he even frame his best supporter , John Kreese ( Martin Kove ) .
Yup , Cobra Kai season fiveis a pile and once you ’ve finish the season , you are by all odds conk towant to read io9 ’s interview with its creatorsand producers , Jon Hurwitz , Hayden Schlossberg , and Josh Heald . We lecture about the epic , unforgettable season five conclusion , how and why all the surprise cameos came to be , what some of the big minx might think for season six , and , much much more ( which , yes , includesthat surprise Ferris Bueller spinoff ) . check off it out but , beware , monolithic spoilers abound .
Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, the creators of Cobra Kai.Photo: Rich Fury (Getty Images)
Josh Heald , Jon Hurwitz , and Hayden Schlossberg , the creators of Cobra Kai . Photo : Rich Fury ( Getty Images )
Germain Lussier , io9 : I love this time of year so much . It ’s so heavy . particularly because I vex to see Johnny , Chozen , and Mike fight down together with Daniel . I was like , “ Oh my God , this is everything a Karate Kid fan has ever dreamed of . ” It ’s Karate Kid : Endgame . Was take all those eccentric together the dream at the beginning ? Or did you ever even think that could become a reality ?
Jon Hurwitz : We are always hop for these kinds of squad - ups . The idea of having Daniel ’s curse from Karate Kid one , Karate Kid two , and Karate Kid three , all sharing screen door time together is something that we ’ve been face forward to . One of our best-loved scenes of the time of year is the very first of the finale where you have all these guy and Daniel , who have all been wronged by Terry Silver , and all understand the stakes of what ’s going on . They ’re intoxicated and they ’re not in their correct headspace . And for Daniel to sort of still attempt to be the voice of intellect , but these three villains of his past are not hearing it and they go off and leave them in the middle of nowhere and they ’re ready to go take on Terry Silver in a really , you know , ill - advise kind of way of life , was something that we thought was raving mad and surprising and play . And just throughout the season , as we had the various reference sharing screen time together , whether it ’s Johnny and Chozen as a duad showing up at a dojo and pick a fight with a sensei , or the two of them sort of verbalize about Daniel without Daniel around and patently Chozen and Barnes and all these dissimilar combinations , it was really like we got all of our toy , all of our action figures and were like , “ We ’re add them all out decent now . permit ’s just go have some fun and play . ” And that ’s what the season was in a nutshell .
Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, the creators of Cobra Kai.Photo: Rich Fury (Getty Images)
io9 : It was so great it really could have been a serial finale . I mean , plain , this time of year teases other places season six can go and we ’ll get to that but if , six days ago , you said “ It ’s going to end with all those guys together , ” I would ’ve been like , “ Oh , my God , perfect . ” I know you ’ve say you have an idea of where it ’s go to end , but was this kind of ultimate showdown ever considered for a series close ?
Josh Heald : That [ mind ] was never , never consider to be the serial finale . We certainly feel there were story things bechance here that … will have series finale vibes about it , but we also know where we ’re going and this is all a prelude to an eventual sexual climax . But yeah , it ’s hard not to be in those moments on solidification or in the hand even , and , and feel , “ Okay . This is Avengers . It ’s reached that Endgame moment where you have all these citizenry coming onto the field of honor to fight this singular villain . ” But there ’s another scoundrel out there and , you know , and he did just get off from prison with nothing to lose and with vengeance on his mind . And that ’s the fun . You have 95 % of our characters living in this world where wickedness has been destroy . But that one chess piece can come back and can well decimate that whole board . So there ’s luck of playfulness to come .
io9 : Yeah . I want to go back to Mr. Kreese in a second here , but you bring up bringing in young plaything , so I have to ask about Sean Kanan and Robin Lively . talk of the town to me about the determination to bring back their character from Karate Kid III , Mike Barnes and Jessica Andrews , and how they each fit into this floor ?
Johnny, Daniel and Chozen teaming up is a dream.Image: Netflix
Hayden Schlossberg : We just go where the history deal us . When we lend fictitious character from the original movie , we endeavor to give them design and not just be like , “ Hey , remember this person ” and that ’s it . And that ’s the magic of the show . You have these fiber come in and they serve a function in this modern - day story . So it ’s impart back nostalgic vibes while steep you in a serialized history .
So , Mike Barnes , it just made sensory faculty to bring him in this season as soon as Terry Silver is now in charge of expanding and he ’s going to be looking for senseis . Every devotee of the original flick would be like , “ Well , is he going to assay out Barnes ? What ’s happening here ? ” Barnes is last to be on the creative thinker of the interview . And we figured it would be on the mind of Daniel , too . So it would make sense organically to bring him in . And then you go into like , “ Well , where is he now ? ” And with all the characters on the show , we play with their family relationship to the past tense and how they ’ve set from retiring incident , and everybody does thing in a dissimilar manner . And we search that through the dissimilar quality . And we like the idea that Mike , unlike some people , kind of base his path and kind of go on in a agency that the other eccentric had n’t . But gets sucked into this story .
With Robin Lively , that was something where , Amanda needed somebody to recount her what Daniel actually pass away through . And we ’ve been talking for year about like , “ How did Daniel and Amanda meet ? ” We did n’t really explain that on the show . And we love the thought that Jessica and she are full cousin . And it wee-wee good sense that she came out to L.A. and Jessica would be like , “ Oh , there ’s a guy you should meet him . He ’s a good guy . ” Because Jessica and Daniel were not fellow / girlfriend in that picture show . So it just all kind of made sense . And when things happen organically like that and they ’re giving you stuff and nonsense and telling the story , that ’s when we get really unrestrained . And there ’s more to come with that . It ’s just everything has to be position out in the ripe room .
Kreese was off the board this season, but will be back next.Image: Netflix
io9 : Oh wow , very interesting . Okay . Another surprising moment for a couple of rationality is when Kreese is going through therapy and we get the young CGI Johnny Lawrence , kind of likeLuke Skywalker on The Mandalorian . It had to be expensive so I ’m curious why the selection and what did Netflix have to say about it ?
Hurwitz : I ca n’t separate you how expensive it was or not , but I will say that when we came up with that sequence , we wanted Kreese to confront his past times and his present tense . And the idea of him envision a young Johnny , the Johnny that we bonk from Karate Kid and to do a deepfake was something that excited us in the author ’s room . So we look into it . I do n’t think it broke our bank , but it was one of the things there was a lot of back and forth on like “ How can we make it look better and good and better ? ” And there were a stack of draft of that when it comes down to it . But we have it off the solvent and we intend we have a few scenes this time of year – whether it was that tantrum or Samantha LaRusso struggle herself – scenes that were unlike types of filmmaking geographic expedition that we have n’t had on the show in the past that we thought were fun additions for this year .
io9 : Yes , utterly . Now , Josh , you talked about Kreese a small bit . The assumption is he ’s travel to be a bad guy cable next year , and you kind of confirm that , but I found it interesting that the moment he break loose prison house is also the moment he ’s acquit . Terry Silver has been arrested . So will that be a factor moving in front or is it just a concurrence ?
Terry Silver might be gone. Or is he?Image: Netflix
Heald : Everything ’s always a divisor in this show . We rarely leave hanging chads . We have n’t really had our full Sopranos , Pine Barrens moment yet where [ people say ] “ Why have n’t they done anything with that heavy cling thing ? ” So , it ’s not really an accident [ but ] Kreese intelligibly has committed multiple crimes by virtue of what he did to leave prison . So , even if there ’s an vindication , he ’s still in big , big problem and that makes him a dangerous , dangerous tool .
And , it ’s a different Kreese . Every version of Kreese we ’ve seen until now still held out some sort of love for Johnny . Some sort of Leslie Townes Hope that Johnny would make out back into the fold . And Johnny really has surrender a message in no unsure terms in season five where he and Kreese stand and that ravaging is actual . Everything that Kreese is doing to fake his dodging , there is some truth behind it . When he ’s tearfully talking about how he thinks of Johnny as a boy and he feels thrown forth and unloved and rejected , and that being the ultimate infliction ? That ’s something he ’s inhabit with . And what does Kreese do with pain ? Well , we ’ve catch him deal with it before back in Vietnam . We ’ve encounter him deal with it for 40 years . So it ’s go to be interesting to see where we go from here .
io9 : If you do n’t leave anything hanging , this time of year would be the perfect seat to go out Terry Silver . Is this the end of Terry Silver or should we just wait and see ?
Is a trip overseas next for the students?Image: Netflix
Schlossberg : It ’s impart where his lawyers are going to be caught up with loads of legal trouble so we ’ll see . I would say right now he ’s a chess piece that ’s been taken off the board in the karate warfare . And yet , he does have the money for a good lawyer . So we ’ll see how things unfold in the future . But it ’s unfortunate to me because I lie with Terry Silver and I ’m settle for his success . And in some ways , season five is a dreaming season because he set out to really be in rush and be on top of the mass . And so he ’s taken down at the terminal and it ’s very entertaining , and I make out it , but he ’s still awake . He ’s still robust . And who knows if he has more to say .
io9 : Okay . Fair enough . Another affair you in all likelihood ca n’t speak to too much is this season , you spend a deal of time setting up this mega international karate tournament . Is it safe to assume that ’s going to be a enceinte part of season six and , if so , could this be the ultimate tournament cease where the show finally earns the right to use the song “ You ’re the Best ( Around ) ? ”
Hurwitz : Well , you ’ve ask a lot there . All we can say is that we did n’t introduce the idea of this tourney for no reason . Johnny , Daniel and Chozen and their students have gained entry into this tournament and Cobra Kai has gain entry , whatever that means . So we know that the tourney is looming . I think just looking forward in general , like our kids are receive older . They ’re go to be on the path of finally graduating gamy school and drop dead out into the earth . So we ’ll see how this tournament will impact that experience . And we ’ll see where we go from there .
You thought Chozen was dead? Sai-ke.Image: Netflix
As for “ You ’re the honest ( Around ) , ” we ’ll see if it shows up on the show at all . It ’s a really important song in this universe . It ’s something that we used on the legacy trailer when we moved the show to Netflix in a really nerveless way . And if we ’re going to utilise it on the show , we want it to be impactful and meaningful and give all those goosebumps that you ’d require .
Schlossberg : It could just be that the characters go [ to the tournament ] and just watch it , and it ’s a merriment thing . So who knows if it ’ll pay off . We ’ll see .
io9 : You guy rope are very good at urinate unconventional , just choices but I do n’t think that would condition . [ All express mirth ] Okay , by the end of season 5 , most of the character are on the same page . Cobra Kai , we ’re a little up in the melody about what they ’re doing , but it feels like most of the adults and the kids are kind of on the same team at the end . So which character do you sense still have the most learning to do as the show moves onwards ?
The gentleman are working on a Ferris Bueller spinoff.Image: Paramount
Heald : That ’s a great motion . I recall we ’ve lead our characters in a seat where they still all have plenty of learning to do . I intend , they ’ve had kind of one sequence where so many of them have either come together or had their middle open for the first time . But there is peck of backwash to explore . A fictional character like Kenny , for example , has been through so much in the past two season in terminus of moving to townspeople and embark on a Modern school and getting bullied and then notice strength and then becoming a bully and going all in . And now seeing that his Saturnia pavonia has no dress and realizing , “ Oh , my God , I ’ve been following this false prophet ” and what ’s real and what ’s not . And I do n’t believe it ’s a lightheaded replacement and I cogitate we allude to that at the close of time of year five when Robby tries to verbalise with him and he ’s not quick yet .
So I think that ’s one example of one relationship that has a mess of meat on the pearl in terms of what happens after something that has generally worked for you is revealed to be tough and you face yourself in the center and see , “ waitress a minute . Am I the bad bozo ? ” And it ’s similar to what Johnny go through at the end of season one when he ’s looking at the first - place trophy that Miguel won and think , “ Why do n’t I feel great about this ? ” And I think we sleep together that kind of difference of opinion , whether it ’s a making love triangle , whether it ’s two karate styles trying to find out common ground , whether it ’s fighting in an outside tournament and trying to vote down your net monster , whether it ’s address with a madman on the slack . I remember there are so many branches of this tree diagram that are leave to climb on and we want to climb them all .
io9 : One branch I ’m beaming you did n’t chop off , but I thought you were hold up to is , I think Chozen was deadened . I think Terry was going to kill him . I ’m glad he ’s did n’t but was that ever a thought ? Like , “ Oh , should we really invoke the wager here and kill a main character like that ? ”
Schlossberg : We just bed that we were going to have this sword - on - blade fight and that we would make it by instalment 50 and it would be dotty and it ’d be really fun . And when you bring sword into a fighting , they have to connect . Otherwise , it ’s not a skillful engagement . So you do think about the consequences of it . And you want to have your patty and eat it too , sometimes . I ’m a huge Terry fan and I want Terry to make headway . But I also am a immense Miyagi sports fan and Chozen represent Miyagi . So you want them both to come through in a sure fashion . And that ’s what I palpate like come out of it . Chozen was take down , like cut up , and then finally was able to up cease Terry and get him into a place where he kind of won the fight , but he arrive distracted and Terry ’s capable to take advantage of that in authoritative Cobra Kai room and wins in his own way . And so you get both vibration . Then it ’s like “ Did Chozen conk ? ” and you have the choice there of doing that . And I think we just have more story to tell with these case .
In some ways , just in term of storytelling , the terror of death is the splanchnic feeling that you really want to get in these scenes . When a character die , it ’s kind of sad afterwards . You ’re like , “ Am I never going to see that type again ? “ So we want the audience to feel all the emotions and go through a roller coaster and at the end , still get to play with our legal action digit .
io9 : Right , exactly . Wrapping things up , now that you ’ve brought back so many characters – we even got Young Sato this season which was awesome – minus the obvious one that everyone ask you about , Hilary Swank , do you guys still have surprise left in memory board for fans who are like super ghost with Karate Kid minutia like me ?
Hurwitz : I ’d say utterly . I ’d say that we suppose about all the characters that are in this world and we enjoy all of the character in the world . As we recollect about it , it always pop from a place of the present - sidereal day story of what ’s going on . And while we have n’t written a 6th season yet , we ’ve sure as shooting had some discussions as to the kind of things we require to do there and the variety of characters that may make sense to show up in a logical agency . So , ca n’t make any specific promise but our view is that as we move onwards , there may be , you lie with , some other familiar brass from the past that pop - up .
io9 : amazing . And really quick , last thing , this Ferris Bueller spinoff . It kind of came out of nowhere and the news went everywhere . It sounds a piffling like Cobra Kai where you take something very popular and give it a courteous new spin . Can you state me a short chip about where the idea came from and what people can expect ?
Heald : I can say this idea will not try out to gainsay anybody ’s opinion or feeling about Ferris Bueller ’s Day Off . We love Ferris Bueller ’s Day Off , which is why we ’re stepping into this world . But we are also obsessed with side characters and journeying that happen off - sieve . And the 2d that you scrape up the itch of “ What did those hombre do with the motorcar ? ” It lead to a whole other gang of questions . Who are they ? What ’s important in their lives ? What ’s their twenty-four hours like ? Where do they go ? Was it a dissimilar part of Chicago that we did n’t explore ? And it ’s such a special day , in terminal figure of what that beautiful day was in Chicago . The intersection of that humanity alone is enough to get our creative juices snuff it . And we ’re super thrilled to be collaborating with Bill Posley on it , who ’s one of our Cobra Kai writer , and he has such a neat take on it that we do n’t want to spoil and we ’re go to allow him do his thing in the book phase for now . But that ’s one that we ’re extremely excited to go make .
Cobra Kai time of year 5 is now on Netflix .
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