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Cobra Kai Showrunners on Surprise "Return" & How They Made It Happen

Cobra Kai showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg discuss how they made THAT shocking "return" happen and much more.

There's no secret there are some still major surprises from The Karate Kid franchise past that Cobra Kai showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald had in store, but nobody expected the bombshell at the end of season six part two, well maybe except THIS guy. At the end of "Blood In Blood Out," Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) delivers Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) an envelope about his late sensei, Nariyoshi Miyagi (Pat Morita), and the truth about his participation in the Sekai Taikai revealing he killed his opponent. The surprise came in the following episode at the beginning of "Eunjangdo," where Daniel is about to face his opponent while in full Gi, and his opponent, also in Miyagi-Do Gi, is none other than a younger Mr. Miyagi himself. As the two fight, we find "Daniel-san" overmatched by his sensei, and as he's about to deliver his finishing blow, telling his student, "That was always your problem, Daniel-san. So eager to understand but not willing to accept," as he morphs into the older incarnation, we see from TKK films before Daniel waking up. The showrunners spoke with Deadline Hollywood about how they made the cameo a reality with permission from the late actor's estate.

How Cobra Kai Showrunners Brought Back the Pat Morita for Mr. Miyagi

When we're re-introduced to Macchio's character in Cobra Kai, we see him become a successful businessman running a family car dealership. Upon running into his former rival Johnny Lawrence (William Zakba), they reinvigorate their rivalry as he restarted Miyagi-Do Karate in response to Johnny's plans to resurrect Cobra Kai. The only time we see Morita's (who passed in 2005) character for the bulk of the series is when Daniel visits his grave and the various flashbacks from the first three Karate Kid films, the bulk of which Hurwitz, Schlossberg, and Heald pulled from the lore while bringing back several faces from the films including Elizabeth Shue (Ali) and Tamilyn Tomita (Kumiko) while other one-time rivals and enemies played by Martin Kove (Kreese), Yuji Okumoto (Chozen), and Griffith joined the main cast, and Sean Kanan (Barnes) having a recurring role.

"This was something that was a long time coming. It was something we weren't sure we would do on the show. But, as technology's gotten better and we were in our final season—Before Season 6, we sat down with Ralph and discussed what he would love to see this final season," Hurwitz said of Miyagi's return. "And the idea of him sharing screen time with Pat Morita again was something that he would love to find a way to make happen. As we went down this story we were digging deeper into Mr. Miyagi's past and learning elements of his life that Daniel nor we ever knew about. Learning that Mr. Miyagi apparently killed somebody at the Sekai Taikai might be something that would be rolling around in Daniel's head in an emotional way that could potentially lead to an interesting dream sequence."

Hurwitz not only got Morita's family's blessing, but thanks to AI, it became a full performance and reality. "If we were going to do this, we had to do it the right way by getting involved with [Morita's] estate and making sure they were comfortable with it. We also contacted one of Pat's daughters with whom we have a relationship," he said. "Ralph spoke with her about the scene to ensure everyone was on board and felt good about what we were doing. We did our best to work with a great company that was going to deliver, and there were lots and lots of rounds of notes, from voice AI to the deepfake. We were pleased with the result."

Cobra Kai is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last, to bring back late actors for their iconic roles, as Star Wars digitally brought back Peter Cushing with the assistance of a stand-in for 2016's Rogue One. Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill and Darth Vader actor James Earl Jones also lent their voices to various franchise shows with the assistance of AI to sound like their younger selves. Jones went the extra mile before his passing in 2024 and allowed AI to capture enough of his voice for any future projects as the character at Disney's discretion.

When it came to embracing AI, "We're not completely versed in it as it's not exactly our lane. But there's a combination of practical and digital and artificial technologies that come together to make it happen," Heald said. "There's a real stand-in performer for that moment. There's some digital design, like mapping of faces that happens and using artificial intelligence for all that, especially when it comes to voicing. With the voice, it doesn't begin as just computer generated. It has to start with a performance and a tone that needs to be matched so it doesn't feel flat. We used some technologies that weren't available even a year ago."

Hurwitz admitted Cobra Kai has already seen the technology back in season five when Kreese was reflecting on his legacy during his time in prison and seeing a younger Johnny in season five while adding there was no soundalike for Morita in the episode "Eunjangdo." "They took all of the audio from his performances in 'The Karate Kid' movies, and they feed it into a machine, and then the AI does its thing." For more, including the showrunners talking about the shocking season six death, you can check out the interview. Cobra Kai returns in 2025 to wrap up the sixth and final season, probably before the premiere of Sony's Karate Kid: Legends, slated for a May 30th release that takes place three years after the events of the Netflix series.

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