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Cobra Kai Season 3 Preview: Kumiko Might Have the Answer Daniel Needs

One of the things that have made Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg's Cobra Kai such a success is its ability to introduce new faces and fresh storylines while also remaining respectful to the franchise that came before it. To that end, we've seen the series dig deeper into the "Karate Kid" universe by introducing characters from the previous films- but only when they served the overall narrative of the show. Martin Kove's Kreese is a perfect example of this, a perfect mutual "big bad" to use to get Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) to put aside their differences and unite. But to do that, each of them will have to confront and demons from their respective pasts. For Daniel, that means heading back to his teacher's homeland to see what more he can learn about Miyagi-do. That means the return of two familiar faces, The Karate Kid Part II stars Tamlyn Tomita and Yuji Okumoto– returning to their roles of Kumiko and Chozen, respectively. And now we're getting a look at Daniel and Kumiko's reunion.

In the clip below, Daniel reminisces with Kumiko about Mr. Miyagi and lessons from their past- lessons from his late sensei that Daniel tells Kumiko he could use right now. Kumiko's response? A head-scratcher…

In August, Hurwitz revealed that all of the film trilogy's characters are potentially in play (as it clearly appears in the brief season 3 scene above): "We love The Karate Kid trilogy and anyone who has seen Seasons 1 and 2 has seen us make references to all three of the original Karate Kid films. And we also say that it's our belief that anything that has happened in a movie Mr. Miyagi was in, which includes The Next Karate Kid, is part of the Miyagi-Verse and our series takes place in the Miyagi-Verse." Hurwitz continued, "Any character who has lived within this Miyagi-Verse has potential to show up at some point on Cobra Kai and I can say that the three of us, as writers, have literally discussed pretty much every person who has appeared in those films, from these large characters you're talking about, like the Terry Silvers of the world, to the most minor characters who had one or two lines."

COBRA KAI Season 3 finds everyone reeling in the aftermath of the violent high school brawl between their dojos, which has left Miguel in a precarious condition. While Daniel searches for answers in his past and Johnny seeks redemption, Kreese further manipulates his vulnerable students with his own vision of dominance. The soul of the Valley is at stake, and the fate of every student and sensei hangs in the balance.

That said, as fun as it is to bring these characters back for the fans it's important that the characters they use bring something meaningful to the series' overall narrative: "We view that as all characters who live in our universe and, at any moment in time, have the potential to show up as long as they're relevant to the present-day story that we're telling and don't feel like they're thrown in there for cameo purposes or for simply for nostalgia's sake," Hurwitz explained. "There needs to be a real, dramatic reason [in] present-day why any of these characters would be relevant to our story. I can say that, going forward, we should expect more characters from The Karate Kid films to return but I can't say who or when or pretty much anything beyond that."

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