Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2’s Major Cameo & Their Impact On Key Character Explained By Co-Creator

Warning: Major SPOILERS lie ahead for Cobra Kai season 6, part 2!

After having avoided showing new scenes with the character for most of the show, co-creator Josh Heald is explaining Cobra Kai season 6 part 2’s Mr. Miyagi cameo. The latest season has seen Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso grappling with the discovery of a box of secrets from Mr. Miyagi’s past, including a captain’s headband from the Sekai Taikai covered in blood. Shortly after learning his sensei’s fight ended in the death of his opponent, episode 10 opened with a dream sequence in which Daniel fought against Mr. Miyagi, both a young version played by Brian Takahashi and CGI recreation of original actor Pat Morita.

In honor of the show’s return, TVLine interviewed Josh Heald to discuss Cobra Kai season 6 part 2 and some of its biggest spoilers. In looking at the decision to unveil more secrets about Mr. Miyagi, including his involvement in the Sekai Taikai, the co-creator explained that they wanted to finally avoid telling a Miyagi story with the character absent, and instead strive to give a “new glimpse” into a part of the character’s life the franchise has avoided:

Pat and Miyagi are the beating heart of this series, and without Mr. Miyagi, there would be no Karate Kid and there would be no Miyagi-verse, as we like to call it. For so many seasons, we’ve told a Miyagi story that was focused on the absence of Mr. Miyagi. This season, we’re digging into a little bit more of the looming presence of new information, new ideas or a new glimpse into a part of Mr. Miyagi’s life that the series has never focused on. That Daniel has never been aware of. So by digging more into that and getting more and more in Daniel’s head with his kind of tortured idea of, “What didn’t he know?”… does that affect and infect his opinion of Mr. Miyagi?

When it came to the decision to utilize CGI to bring Morita back to life, Heald acknowledged that the team spoke with the late actor’s estate to make sure “that they’re aware and that they’re comfortable“ with the effect, while also working with “a lot of technical things” to make the effect look the best possible. He would go on to describe Miyagi’s appearance in the scene as “an unfortunate vision that Daniel is having”, as both he and audiences see a version of the late sensei they’ve never seen. See the rest of Heald’s explanation below:

There’s a lot of technical things that you need to do with visual effects. There’s obviously talking to Pat’s estate and making sure that they’re aware and that they’re comfortable and that they sign off on that. We’re still coming out of the wild, wild west of AI and visual effects, and we’re entering a place of needing to have some standards in terms of how you present that. You can’t just do anything you want. Even though you’re not having an actor there on set, it’s still his likeness. So we went through all of that process, which was important to us and the studio, and feel like we’ve captured this unfortunate vision that Daniel is having of being trapped in this nightmare that he’s been in. He’s been kind of in a waking nightmare, and then he’s having a literal nightmare where a Miyagi like we’ve never seen visits him.

What This Means For Cobra Kai & Beyond

A Miyagi Prequel May Actually Be On The Table

Though the team have never explicitly said they wouldn’t bring the character back, they have often expressed a reluctance to incorporate Mr. Miyagi into Cobra Kai. Between wanting to maintain his legacy while also focusing on the new characters introduced in the Karate Kid sequel show, it was clear that Heald and co-creators/co-showrunners Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg were going to be careful whenever reintroducing him to the fold.

Even still, with the character now officially back in the franchise, even if through a dream sequence capacity, the door now seems open for a young Mr. Miyagi Karate Kid spinoff. Fans of the series aren’t the only ones who have expressed their interest in seeing a prequel centered on the beloved character, either, as both Schlossberg and Macchio have shared similar curiosity about the possibility, with the latter having told Screen Rant the following in late 2022:

Whether it be in the front of it, or on the periphery, or just involved in some way – because I was there from the beginning with these characters – I would love to be included in [a spin-off]. And there are those discussions going on, although it is not a solidified idea or production at this point. But it seems to me it’s just… How do we not explore the backstory of and the origin of Mr. Miyagi? And what happened? What brought him to that place; working in that apartment in Reseda? What was his life before then? I think that would be fascinating.

While Cobra Kai season 6 part 2 has already taken to tying up some of the loose ends of Miyagi’s past, including his involvement in the Sekai Taikai, there are certainly plenty of other areas of his life for the show to explore. One of the more likely options would be that of his childhood, learning his patented Miyagi-Do from his fisherman father and eventually competing in tournaments, including the aforementioned world tournament the show has been exploring this season.

Our Take On Future Miyagi Appearances In Cobra Kai & Beyond

A Full Recast Could Work, More CGI Wouldn’t

As much as I love the character as a whole, Mr. Miyagi is so rooted in Pat Morita’s performance that it would be hard to imagine anyone else playing him in future franchise appearances. That said, I would certainly be open to seeing future Miyagi stories after Cobra Kai season 6, permitted the role would be recast, rather than further CGI recreations of Morita. It’s a trend I’ve already become largely tired of in Hollywood with everything from Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One to Ian Holm’s Rook in Alien: Romulus.

Cobra Kai season 6 part 3 is set to premiere on February 13 on Netflix.

Source: TVLine

Set decades after the events of the Karate Kid franchise, Cobra Kai shifts gears and puts viewers into the perspective of a former rival/antagonist, Johnny Lawrence. In his 50s and down on his luck, a chance encounter with a bullied young man leads Johnny back to Karate. Agreeing to help him, Johnny takes the opportunity to revive his former home, the Cobra Kai dojo – becoming a refuge for outcast teens.

Cast

Tanner Buchanan , Xolo Mariduena , Mary Mouser , Connor Murdock , Ralph Macchio , Nichole Brown , Jacob Bertrand , Griffin Santopietro , William Zabka

Seasons

6

Writers

Josh Heald , Jon Hurwitz , Hayden Schlossberg , Michael Jonathan , Mattea Greene , Bill Posley , Stacey Harman , Joe Piarulli , Bob Dearden

Directors

Jon Hurwitz

Showrunner

Jon Hurwitz

Expand