One of the creators behind “Cobra Kai” teases what’s coming in season 4 as well as the rumors that “Karate Kid Part 3” villain Terry Silver will return…
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN COBRA KAI SEASON 3
Following a long wait and a change in streaming services, “Cobra Kai” season 3 finally debuted in January with audiences being treated to even more fan service amid a volatile rivalry boiling over between a trio of karate schools.
While Daniel LaRusso spends the majority of the season attempting to save his business and reignite his own passion for karate, Johnny Lawrence is stuck on the outside looking in after his former sensei John Kreese takes over the Cobra Kai dojo while also stealing many of his top students. Johnny is also mired in turmoil after his top student Miguel is left paralyzed for much of the season after he was kicked off a balcony during a school fight with Miyago-do student Robby, who also just so happens to be Johnny’s wayward son.
When “Cobra Kai” season 4 comes to an end, Miguel is not only walking but he’s been reunited with his former flame Samantha LaRusso and he’s practicing karate again. Daniel decides to return to teaching as well after learning that his true rival isn’t Johnny but rather the man who taught him to show no mercy on the mats.
That all leads to a violent confrontation with Kreese, who has now brought Robby under his wing after he’s released from a juvenile detention center and wants nothing to do with his former sensei or his father. Kreese is determined to rebuild Cobra Kai into the powerhouse it once was in the early 1980’s but his punishing style of karate has now forced Daniel and Johnny to team up together in order to stop him.
In the closing moments, Kreese continues teaching Robby and his gang of Cobra Kai students while Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang (yes, that’s Johnny’s new dojo name) have teamed up to learn karate together to prepare for the next All-Valley tournament where only the best school will survive. With his business on the line, Kreese picks up the phone just before the end as he calls a friend asking for help.
Throughout “Cobra Kai” season 3, Kreese also received a backstory for the first time as his origins in the military as well as his introduction to karate were explored after he was sent to Vietnam as a teenager. After being captured by the enemy, Kreese is eventually forced to clash with his teacher in a fight to the death and after he’s victorious, the future Cobra Kai instructor also rescues one of his fellow soldiers — a man later revealed to be Terry Silver.
As a refresher, Terry Silver was the toxic waste millionaire, who made it his personal business to seek vengeance on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi for what they did to Kreese and his karate business. In the end, the Cobra Kai duo failed when their chosen champion Mike Barnes was defeated by Daniel in the finals of the All-Valley karate tournament.
Speculation has run wild since Terry Silver was revealed in Kreese’s backstory along with the phone call he made at the end of the season that perhaps Thomas Ian Griffith might return to make an appearance in “Cobra Kai” season 4. Of course, Griffith just recently popped up in a “Karate Kid” reunion so it seems entirely possible that he might be coming back to rejoin his friend Kreese in this battle against Johnny and Daniel.
“It was really fun for us in season 3 to bring back Terry Silver, but in a way that you’ve never seen before in those flashbacks,” ‘Cobra Kai’ co-creator Jon Hurwitz told EW. “We know how beloved the character Terry is and he is to us as well. We went so far as to introduce a character early on who has a ponytail, and you’re all excited and you’re like, “Oh my God, it’s Terry Silver!” And then [we] kill that character, and then revealed soon after that the other guy was Terry Silver. He’s a character that we have a lot of fun with.
“At the end of the season, you saw Kreese make a phone call. You could guess who might’ve been on the other end of that call based off of the photo that he was looking at there. But we can’t really speak to how Terry Silver would respond to that call — or whoever was on the other end of the line would respond to that call. I think you’ll have to see if that character returns in season 4.”
Griffith, who appeared in “The Karate Kid Part III” as well as John Carpenter’s film “Vampires,” hasn’t regularly acted since 2007 but he seemed more than enthusiastic to reunite with his former cast members when actor Josh Gad gathered the casts from all three “Karate Kid” movies together for charity.
In addition to speculation about Griffth’s return as Terry Silver, there have also been questions about a possible reappearance from Mike Barnes, the bad boy karate champion who was hired specifically to defeat Daniel LaRusso in the All-Valley tournament.
Actor Sean Kanan, who played Mike Barnes in “The Karate Kid Part III,” added to the rumors with a message on Twitter and it certainly seems based on his various responses that he’s open to the idea of returning for an appearance in “Cobra Kai.”
Thanks to everyone who has speculated on Mike Barnes making an appearance in season four of @CobraKaiSeries May I suggest that while you are waiting you please check out my Emmy winning series @studiocity_show Studio City exclusively on @PrimeVideo #Cobrakai
— Sean Kanan (@seankanan) January 6, 2021
Outside of the possible return of Terry Silver and/or Mike Barnes, Hurwitz also teased the ongoing drama between Robby and his real father Johnny as well as a surrogate parent he gained in Daniel, who had become a mentor and teacher to him.
For now, Robby has come under the influence of Kreese and he’s ready to become the new Cobra Kai champion ahead of the next All-Valley tournament.
“In terms of Robby, he’s one of the most interesting characters on our show,” Hurwitz said. “First of all, Tanner Buchanan is a fantastic actor and also just a great young man. He’s one of those actors who, when he’s shooting, he’s there and he’s prepared, but when he’s not shooting, he’s on set at all times because he just wants to learn. He sits with us often and video village watching asking us questions. He knows everybody on set really well; he’s tight with the PAs, he’s tight with everybody there. Tanner is such a joy.
As a character on the show, Robby is somebody who has a deep history with Johnny, he now has a deep history with Daniel, and we saw where he was left, kind of lost and scared at end of season 2. So in season 3, you see him on this roller coaster journey all season, figuring out how to deal with the aftermath of what happened with Miguel and figuring out who to trust and what to trust, and who’s truly there for him. You see how season 3 ends and he’s there with Kreese. So in season 4, we’ll have to see — does he go full Cobra Kai? Does he embrace the quote-unquote dark side in every way, or do the lessons of his past have an impact as well? So season 4 certainly has a strong journey for the Robby character.”
“Cobra Kai” season 4 is expected to go into production later this year with a debut date on Netflix still to be determined.
