Posted in: Cobra Kai, Netflix, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, exclusive, hayden schlossberg, interview, Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, netflix

Cobra Kai Creators on New Season 6 Part 2 Cast, Building Sekai Taikai

Cobra Kai creators/showrunners Josh Heald, Hayden Schlossberg, and Jon Hurwitz on the series' new adversaries, shocking moments, and more.

There's no doubt Cobra Kai creators and showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald perfectly captured the empathy for every core character on the Netflix martial arts. While everyone's had a turn becoming their own hero and in some ways, their own villain, the biggest challenge that lay ahead for the trio was creating a new slew of antagonists with no history with any of the previous characters. Since the final martial arts tournament in the series is the global Sekai Taikai, Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai face their biggest threat to glory: unknown enemies. Hurwitz, Schlossberg, and Heald spoke to Bleeding Cool about some of the new characters played by Lewis Tan (Sensei Wolf), Patrick Luwis (Axel Kovacevic), and Rayna Vallandingham (Zara Malik) as part of the stiff competition both dojos will face.

Cobra Kai Creators on Season Two, Part Two Additions: Iron Dragons, Building Up the Sekai Taikai

Bleeding Cool: And what can you say about the additions of Lewis, Patrick, and Rayna, and what they add up to this next part?

Heald: It was important to us when we got to the Sekai Taikai; it's not just Cobra Kai versus Miyagi-Do anymore. There are 16 teams out there, you will get to know senseis and students from other dojos, and this is the world stage. This is the world tournament, so things need to be taken up a notch. Lewis Tan's "Sensei Wolf" is a formidable opponent, not just as a sensei but as a fighter himself.

We wanted somebody who could stand and stack up against the great fighters we've had on our show on the Sensei level. Both Rayna and Patrick have additional strong fighters new to the series and greater threats. With Axel [Luwis], there was a thought of like, "We were thinking of Ivan Drago [Dolph Lundgren] from 'Rocky IV' and having this like larger than life, beast of a competitor who is a physical threat to all our characters after we've already introduced Kwon [Brandon H. Lee] in the first five [episodes].

There's a lot our team must be afraid of. With Rayna playing Zara, she's somebody we have been following on social media for her martial arts skills for a while now and was somebody we thought about. We're like, "Hopefully, she can act because she'd be amazing on our show in the Sekai Taikai to be somebody who can square off against our female competitors both on and off the mat. We were blown away by her martial arts but also by the work she did in her first significant acting role in this series. She brought it every day.

Was it difficult to plan out the Sekai Taikai in terms of setting itself apart from the previous tournaments you did in the series? Or was it an atypical process of planning and executing?

Heald: We wanted to present something new. We wanted to deliver on the idea of this ancient and centuries-long tournament that has evolved and has surprises lurking around every corner and a bit of mystique and danger associated with it in terms of the tournament structure. What we wanted to deliver upon is the idea the Sekai Taikai can be whatever it is at any time they have a lot of rotating types of events that are some new, some they've done before.

Some are debuting for the first time, this Sekai Taikai, and at any given moment, the tides can change depending on the makeup of your team and the strength of your fighters. It's not just one-on-one fights we're used to seeing in 'The Karate Kid' universe. We now see whole teams take on whole teams and not just traditional fighting on a mat. There's going to be some other twists and turns as well that are going to make up the ante.

When we sat down to map this out, we looked at every creative idea we could come up with. It was conceivable it could be in a martial arts competition. Then, consult heavily with our stunt team or the best in the business in terms of how to present this and pull it off in a way that is grounded and delivers on both. The emotional story drives as well as the action component, and we're happy to have presented something wholly unique that we haven't seen before in yet another martial arts property, but that has a lot of allusions and homages to things we love there as well.

What is the biggest surprise reaction from fans or anything on the show?

Schlossberg: Surprise reaction? Guys, do you have any? We build in surprises on the show, and usually, the audience reacts as we assume they would. They're reacting. We've created this karate soap opera, and usually, the audience responds to our big twists and moments. The pleasant surprise is many of the characters from the other movies, 'The Karate Kid Part II, III,' and 'The Next Karate Kid' and everything there is.

People are hungry to see those characters. We knew we wanted to explore the movies, but as we put out more seasons, we delve deeper into stories. It's a pleasant surprise to see fans speculating who to bring in next. Wanting to delve deeper into the back stories of certain characters. It encourages us, when we think about beyond season six, doing spinoffs, that there is a demand out there in the fan base to learn more. I wouldn't say, "It's a shock, but it was nice to see the audience out there and the fan base is in sync with how we're feeling because you never know. We're obsessed fans. So it's nice to know there are thousands and thousands more out there.

Cobra Kai season six, part two, which also stars Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Peyton List, and Martin Kove releases November 15th on Netflix with part three in 2025.

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