Posted in: Cobra Kai, Netflix, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, Mike Barnes, netflix, Sean Kanan, The Karate Kid Part III

Cobra Kai: Sean Kanan on Holding Off Surgery for Final Season Return

Sean Kanan discusses Mike Barnes' return for the final season of Cobra Kai and the shoulder surgery he put off to make it happen.

There was no way "The Bad Boy of Karate" was missing the final season of showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg's Cobra Kai, especially after the hard work Sean Kanan put in for Mike Barnes' return and redemption following the events of The Karate Kid Part III (1989). When we find him in season five of the Netflix series, his rival Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) tries to follow up on him, suspecting he's still up to his nefarious ways. After a miscommunication and a scuffle with Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), the two discover Barnes runs a furniture store. Later, his former sensei at Cobra Kai, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), allegedly had Barnes' business burned down, answering for that on top of the other charges he was arrested for in the season five finale. Kanan finds his way back to the Netflix series, with season six, part one, having premiered on July 18th. Here's a look at what Kanan had to share with EW about his return – with some minor spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

Cobra Kai: Sean Kanan on Takes a Turn at Sensei in Part I

As revealed leading up to Part I's release, we see Barnes don his familiar black Gi, but without the Cobra Kai patches, since we learn in season five that he renounced the dojo following the events of the John G. Avildsen sequel. Daniel and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) recruit Barnes to evaluate the six Miyagi-Do students who will go to Barcelona to compete in the international Sekai Tenkai Karate Tournament.

When it came to Daniel's "bad idea" of bringing in "The Bad Boy" of Karate to help at Miyagi-Do, "Barnes is very much Barnes. But there was one thing that we worked into that speech, and it was a suggestion that I had. I said, 'I think it would really give some depth to the character if he realized that he had the opportunity to do what these kids are going to do, and he blew it because of his lack of emotional control,'" Kanan said. "So [the producers] graciously gave me the latitude to put that line in there, that 'I blew my chance,' and then look at Daniel. I think that demonstrates the self-awareness and evolution in the character."

On Barnes's fight with Lawrence at Barnes's wood shop, "First of all, I absolutely adore Billy Zabka. I met Billy in 1988, so I knew Billy before I had ever even done 'Karate Kid Part III.' He's just a spectacular guy. He has got brilliant comedic sensibilities. I love working with Billy, and I knew it was going to be fun," Kanan recalled. "For me, it was a little challenging because on July 11th I'm having rotator cuff surgery. I've had a longstanding injury. Before I even knew that I was going to come back for season 6, I met with my surgeon, and he said, 'Look, if we do this surgery [now], if they call you for season six, there's no way you can do it.'"

Kanan opted to tough it out. "I put the surgery off. My concern was, can I get through this fight scene? And I was able to do it, I think, effectively, with the knowledge that when it was done, that was the last big physical thing I was going to do before getting the surgery," he said. "One thing I really like is that Johnny and Mike Barnes absolutely do not dislike each other. There's a lot of similarities between them. And you even saw in season 5 that Johnny says, 'The bad boy's right!' and 'I like this guy.' They haven't made a big deal about it, but Mike Barnes saved Johnny's ass at the end of season 5. This fight that happens between Johnny and Mike — Mike is kind of instigating it because he needs to know that he's still a guy that can throw down if he has to. For him, if he's still able to do it, as he says, it's recapturing his power, so to speak. I mean, we don't know what happened to Mike's wife. She presumably divorced him… He's a guy that really has lost everything, and the one thing that he's at least trying to retain is his sense of his own integrity and relevance. In Mike's mind, it's, 'Hey, if I go up against Johnny Lawrence, then maybe I'm still worth something.'"

For more, including how Kanan feels if Barnes could competitively compete in karate again, what Barnes would think of Devon (Oona O'Brien) secretly cheating Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young) during the final qualifying contest, training, and spinoff possibilities, you can check out the complete interview here. Cobra Kai season six, part two premieres November 15th, and part three in 2025 on Netflix.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!