Cobra Kai‘s creators are teasing the show’s future, notably by hinting that several veteran actors from the Karate Kid franchise may make cameo appearances in its anticipated fifth season. One of the martial arts comedy series’ co-creators, Jon Hurwitz revealed the casting news at this year’s Producers Guild of America Awards on Saturday night.
While attending the ceremony, at which Cobra Kai was nominated for the Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy, Hurwitz said: “if you’re a fan of the franchise, maybe some familiar faces show up,” Deadline is reporting.
So far, every season of Cobra Kai has featured at least two guest appearances from characters of the original four Karate Kid movies. Those guest cameos include Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), Yuna (Traci Toguchi) and Tommy (Rob Garrison).
The guest stars have appeared alongside the show’s regular characters, including Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). The ending of Cobra Kia‘s fourth season even hinted that Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) may become a series regular in the upcoming fifth season.
Overall, there are many opportunities for more familiar faces to show up on the show’s fifth season. Chozen’s close ties to Karate Kid II and Silver’s background in Karate Kid III mean that more characters from those two films will have the opportunity to also appear on the television series.
During Season 4, Silver indicated he could dig up an “old friend” to help him run Cobra Kai. Many of the franchise’s fans think he was referencing his long-time friend Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), who was considered to be Daniel’s greatest enemy. Barnes has also been mentioned many other times throughout the show’s entire run.
With Silver’s return, fans have also been expecting the return of Snake (Jonathan Avildsen) a troublemaker who was happy to help and serve Silver’s in Karate Kid III.
Macchio also has even said that two-time Oscar-winning actress, Hilary Swank may make a cameo on Cobra Kai. If she reprises her role of Julie Pierce from The Next Karate Kid, more performers from the third feature sequel may be willing to appear on the show, as well.
The movies’ television spin-off, which originally premiered in 2018 on YouTube Red [now YouTube Premium], follows Daniel and Johnny as they reunite 34-years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament. On the TV series, Johnny opens the titular sees Cobra Kai dojo, which prompts Daniel to open his own dojo, Miyagi-do. When Cobra Kai is then taken over once again by the notorious John Kreese, Daniel and Johnny must form an alliance to take him down.
During the Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony, Hurwitz also indicated that Cobra Kai‘s fifth season is going to have a lot of unexpected surprises for everyone. He noted that no one except for the creators knows exactly what’s going to happen next on the show. In “Season 4 everyone knew that we were heading toward a tournament — Season 5, no one knows where we are headed. We do, because we already made it,” he shared.
Season 4 of the Emmy Award-nominated television series, which now streams on Netflix, ended with both Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and Tory (Peyton List) winning. However, the latter soon discovers she won because Silver cheated.
“The bad guys won in Season 4, so there’s going to be some hell to pay, whether there’s more hellfire or retribution,” Hurwitz’s co-creator, Josh Heald, said. He added that in the next season “there’s lot of people punching each other, kicking other, but the story is going to go in a new way that no one can possibly predict.”
Cobrai Kai‘s third co-creator, Hayden Schlossberg also chimed in on the SAG Award-nominated show’s future. “We have an end in mind,. How many seasons it takes to get there, we don’t know. We’re enjoying making it so much.”
Schlossberg added: “If it gets tiring to us, we’ll stop before that; [but] we have a few more seasons already planned out.”