Cobra Kai Cast Names Surprising Karate Kid Legacy Star as 'Just a Big Teddy Bear' (2025)

Cobra Kai has returned to Netflix with the debut of Season 6 Part 2. The new batch of episodes will mark the penultimate chapter of the series, with the third and final part coming in 2025.

To promote the return of the series to Netflix, several cast members spoke about the show with CBR's Kevin Polowy. Present for the interview were Tanner Buchanan (Robby Keene), Xolo Maridueña (Miguel Diaz), Gianni DeCenzo (Demetri Alexopoulos), Peyton List (Tory Nichols), Jacob Bertrand (Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz), and Mary Mouser (Samantha LaRusso). It was teased in the interview how the final episodes of Cobra Kai will have twists that even the cast members would not have predicted.

As Mouser explained, "The biggest piece of the puzzle that we are looking at right now is, what does it look like to take it on the global scale, which obviously we kind of could anticipate coming into this season in general, and where we come from the last drop, but I feel like there's a lot of surprising twists and turns that even I didn't anticipate. I knew the challenge would be huge, but I just didn't realize how nonstop and how astronomical it really got to be."

Ralph Macchio and William Zabka Also Serve as Mentors Behind the Scenes

Also discussed was how it was to work with some of the legacy characters who returned to the franchise after previously appearing in The Karate Kid 40 years ago. That includes Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence), both of whom are described by their younger co-stars as both professional and inspirational.

"They are just such professionals on the set, they really show us how to handle ourselves on and off-set," DeCenzo said. "They've been doing this for so many years, and if they can do it, we can, too. They believe in us."

List then shared, "I had a conversation with Billy [Zabka], this last season, at the tournament, just getting to spend a lot of time with him, and he just talked to me for a while about longevity in this industry, and just having done such a huge feature like The Karate Kid in the 80s, and his journey until now. He went into it in such depth, and it was just really inspiring to me. It was just really cool to me how he's built such an authentic life, while still remaining an actor. That's something that I feel like is really rare."

The actors also spoke about Martin Kove, who plays the villain John Kreese in the series. Though the villainous character is only expected to get worse in the final season of Cobra Kai, Kove is actually a "teddy bear" behind the scenes. Kove's co-stars also spoke about how he's a "goofball" on the set, with List sharing an interesting story about how he'd greeted her on the set for the filming of the final season.

"He's a teddy bear," Bertrand said. "We all love that guy in different ways."

Mouser added, "He keeps the voice, and the character going, and the vibes, but any conversation with him, you crack the shell like that. He's just a big teddy bear."

"He also gave me a headshot right before our first scene this season," List said. "He's like, 'Tory, it's good to see you.' He signed it for me, and he said, 'Your faith got me out.' And there's a picture of him in jail."

Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 is now streaming on Netflix, while Part 3 will premiere in February 2025.

Source: CBR

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Cobra Kai

Comedy

Drama

Action

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.

Release Date

Cast

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

Rating

Seasons

6

Franchise

Characters By

Cinematographer

Creator

Distributor

Main Characters

Prequel

Production Company

Sfx Supervisor

Story By

josh heald

Writers

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

Number of Episodes

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix

Directors

Jon Hurwitz

Showrunner

Jon Hurwitz