Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, hayden schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald

Cobra Kai Showrunners on Daniel Being at Peace with Miyagi's Legacy

Cobra Kai showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg on whether Daniel LaRusso is finally at peace with Mr. Miyagi's legacy.

Cobra Kai showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg have done so much in telling the complete story of life beyond The Karate Kid films allowing all their featured characters the kind of depth few could ever dream of. Not only do we have the most unlikely redemption story of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), the predominant villain of the original 1984 film, but the showrunners also added nuance to his rival, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his sensei, Nariyoshi Miyagi (Pat Morita) relationship few could ever imagine. It's not just those two main leads, but every other major TKK villain from Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), John Kreese (Martin Kove), and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) became fully fleshed out characters who have grown in their own way.

Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg spoke with Bleeding Cool about Daniel's series-long journey to unravel the mysteries of his late sensei, the narrative use of digitally resurrecting Morita (who passed in 2005) for season six, and if plans were ever to go beyond Daniel's dreams. The following contains minor spoilers for season six, part three.

Cobra Kai Showrunners on Wrapping Daniel's Legacy with Mr. Miyagi

By the end of 'Cobra Kai,' do you think Daniel is finally at peace about the man Mr. Miyagi used to be or potentially could be, or is it something you feel would be determined by future canon?

Hurwitz: I think he's at peace by the end of this series. He recognizes the man he knew lived a life which he was wrestling with. He felt like he had this closeness that Mr. Miyagi told him everything, but you don't tell your children every moment of your life. Certainly, there are some things you're not necessarily proud of, but he realizes by the end of this series Mr. Miyagi was a good man at heart. Sometimes, tough things happened in his life or tragic things happened in his life, but his heart was always in the right place. There's always more to the story, and I think that's what Daniel has learned by the end of the series.

When it came to digitally recreating Mr. Miyagi, were there other moments you considered for the narrative, like the way you constructed the backstory for Kreese and Silver, or were they only meant to be in Daniel's dreams?

Schlossberg: From the very beginning, the Miyagi story is Daniel's story. It's everything he's going through in his personal life and his memories of Miyagi. It's the battle within his head, and so we love the idea of having a moment where he's fighting Mr. Miyagi when things are at their worst in the season, and then another moment where he and Mr. Miyagi are fighting together side by side. Those visuals were important to us, and Mr. Miyagi passed away, obviously. The only way that we're going to get those types of things is a dream/fantasy sequence. In a lot of ways, like classic stories in the past, those dreams, in a way, are the past coming to you and being a mentor to you through that channel. It was an opportunity for Mr. Miyagi to give some last lessons to Daniel.

Season six, part three of Cobra Kai, streams February 13th on Netflix.

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