the third season of Cobra Kai he left four days ago. How many times have you watched everything? Six? Seven? We’re kidding, of course, but you’d better finish it if you want to read what’s below. io9 did a Zoom chat with creators and executive producers of Karate Kid show, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, and we talked about everything you’re curious about when season three ends.
That being said, if you’re not done Cobra KaI have season 3 (or, God forbid, he watched any of them) go do this now. If you have, continue below as we get to the bottom of those burning questions.
Germain Lussier, io9: What were the big things you wanted to give in season 3?
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Jon Hurwitz: We wanted to bring Ali back. We wanted to get into Kreese’s past and do a whole Vietnam story. We wanted to go to Okinawa. These were three important elements of the season we talked about. Also, our hope was to bring Johnny and Daniel to the end and tease the audience along the way.
io9: When you teased Ali’s return at the end of season 2 Elizabeth Shue has already been connected and did you know what you would do with her if she did?
Josh Heard: She wasn’t connected when I did this. This was an example of leading with our confidence and belief that Karate Kid the gods will smile at us and make it happen. But we’ve been actively involved in talking to Elizabeth right before, trying to share the love for what this show is, where we come from as fans who become administrators. Karate child and wanting to take that character further into this universe and find the right way to do it.
But at that time, there was literally no knowledge or way to happen or not or to go south. And I said, “You know what? We’re still ending the season like this. We will always have to be optimistic about this. “And it was very special. A special process and a special return for Ali in the universe of the show and indeed in our set. I mean, when Elizabeth Shue went there, she felt like, “Here’s this missing piece of the puzzle that might help Johnny and Daniel fit in a little better together.” And there were real hens and real smiles on our faces. I’m sure the backstage photos only show the three of us on a monitor smiling ear to ear, watching them act together again. The series would not be complete without starting to tell the story of Ali.
io9: Tell me how you developed the role a trip to Okinawa would play in the show
Hurwitz: We are always looking for a surprising way to bring back characters. And I felt it would be interesting to have Daniel in that part of the world for another reason and for him to be at a relatively low point where he’s kind of lost and he finds that extracting Okinawa is too strong for him to don’t make that little extra trip to return to Miyagi’s homeland, which was a special place in his past, the birth of his karate, and the birthplace of his mentor. To bring him there in that context in which he is somehow lost and sought and then to find what he is looking for, but in unexpected ways.
And we knew that we wanted Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) to be involved in a meaningful way, related to the past relationship and past actions. And for Daniel to be some wisdom. To bring Mr. Miyagi back into the story in a different way than we have had so far. And for us, that letter-reading scene is one of our favorite scenes we’ve ever done in the show. It was such a strong, powerful moment.
Then, to bring Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) back …. Together we created the story that I thought would allow these characters and actors to shine, but they also allowed Daniel to learn new layers of Mr. Miyagi and new layers of karate. To make those kinds of scenes that you knew fans were going to go crazy for, but they were significant to our current story.
io9: How did you come up with Kreese’s back story and get Martin Kove involved?
Hayden Schlossberg: Entering season two, we had already thought about it and intend to go deeper. And when I talked to Marty … about the character and his background story, he planned this whole background story, which was different on the surface, but at its core it was very similar in terms of Vietnam trauma and being a prisoner. So those of us have always been our ideas. What we wanted was to understand how this guy we grew up with, being the most evil character of all time, could have been a human being for whom you might feel bad …[Also] I wanted him to be in the heart of darkness and to truly learn “No Mercy” as a necessity in life. And the way to do that is to show pity and it really doesn’t work for you.
io9: It was actually Terry Silver on the phone at the end of the show and it could be his return to score and the return of Mpower BArnes?
Schlossberg: Listen, we’re fans of all the movies. And so to speak. We spend time giving Terry Silver a back story in season three. You’ll see Terry Silver’s past. We treat all these characters from those original movies as if they were really important in the universe. And we don’t want to say anything official yet about season four right now, but Kreese looks at a photo of young Terry Silver and dials a number and makes a phone call. And you could imagine who is at the other end. So, we don’t make any official statements, but, hypothetically, there are a lot of interesting soap operas left to say, which we can’t wait to tell.
io9: Well, can you say something about season 4? Surely it looks like we’re at least getting at least another All-Valley karate tournament.
Schlossberg: That’s what we can say about season four. The stakes have never been higher in the All-Valley.
Cobra Kai seasons 1-3 are now on Netflix. Season 4 is underway.
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