Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz and Josh Heald tease an unpredictable season 5 filled with “insanity” and “familiar faces” from the franchise. The series has been a success on Netflix with a formula that works, but that doesn’t mean things are going to get stale.
In an interview with Deadline, Hurwitz told long-time fans to expect some returning characters in the upcoming season.
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. There’s a lot of insanity; if you’re a fan of the franchise, maybe some familiar faces show up, maybe not; there’s going to be a lot of karate.” – Jon Hurwitz
In the same interview, Heald told us to expect the unexpected.
“The bad guys won in Season 4, so there’s going to be some hell to pay, whether there’s more hellfire or retribution. 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.” – Josh Heald
Season 4 was filled with losses from the personal to the professional, as wealthy businessman Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) from Karate Kid III returned to the series and teamed up with hardcore Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) to cause all kinds of havoc. The season ended with Silver winning the All Valley Karate Tournament, and in true villain fashion, promises to grow his empire throughout the area.
As the Cobra Kai saga continues, so does speculation about who might be returning. We have already had Elizabeth Shue’s Ali Mills from the original Karate Kid movie appear in season 3 to reconcile with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). Tamlyn Tomita as Kumiko and Yuji Okumoto as Chozen Toguchi from Karate Kid II have made multiple appearances throughout the series as well.
There area also plenty of rumors about who could be stepping into the arena and the creators have hinted that they’d love it if superfan Andrew Garfield joined the karate chaos. It’s also been rumored that Hilary Swank, who played Julie Pierce in The Next Karate Kid, could return to the Karate Kid universe.
Cobra Kai will return to Netflix with season 5 later in 2022.