This text comprises spoilers for the “Cobra Kai” season 6 half 2 finale, “Eunjangdo.”
Netflix’s “Cobra Kai” has completed a commendable job at increasing and updating the story informed by “The Karate Child” films, however it has at all times handled one key concern. The central determine of the franchise, Mr. Miyagi from “The Karate Child,” has solely been current in spirit since Pat Morita handed away in 2005.
“Cobra Kai” has gotten round this by having Miyagi’s scholar and successor Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) put his previous instructor and pal on a pedestal … however with “Cobra Kai” season 6 half 2 lastly revealing Miyagi’s massive, darkish secret, that pedestal is kind of completely damaged now. Daniel learns within the episode “Blood in Blood Out” that the venerable karate grasp as soon as killed a person throughout a match. Within the very subsequent episode, “Eunjangdo,” we really see Miyagi on the display as soon as once more, courtesy of AI. In an interview with TV Line, “Cobra Kai” co-creator Josh Heald acknowledged that bringing Morita’s iconic character again this manner was essential to the present’s narrative:
“For thus many seasons, we have informed a Miyagi story that was centered on the absence of Mr. Miyagi. This season, we’re digging into slightly bit extra of the looming presence of recent info, new concepts or a brand new glimpse into part of Mr. Miyagi’s life that the collection has by no means centered on. That Daniel has by no means been conscious of. So by digging extra into that and getting increasingly in Daniel’s head along with his sort of tortured concept of, ‘What did not he know?’ … does that have an effect on and infect his opinion of Mr. Miyagi?”
Cobra Kai took pains to make the AI Miyagi as respectful as attainable
Story-wise, the Mr. Miyagi scene matches Josh Heald’s description properly. The episode opens as Daniel fights a Sekai Taikai finale battle in opposition to a younger, intense Miyagi. The Okinawan grasp soundly wins whereas stating his scholar’s key character flaws, morphing from younger to previous in a literal blink of Daniel’s eye. It is a nightmare sequence, in fact, however the affect is monumental — each to the more and more harried Daniel and the viewer.
The younger Miyagi is performed by Brian Takahashi (“Outer Vary”). Whereas AI was used to recreate Morita’s likeness, Heald identified within the TV Line interview that they mentioned the scene with the late actor’s property and put in loads of work to maintain issues respectful and applicable:
“We’re nonetheless popping out of the wild, wild west of AI and visible results, and we’re coming into a spot of needing to have some requirements by way of the way you current that. You’ll be able to’t simply do something you need. Although you are not having an actor there on set, it is nonetheless his likeness. So we went by way of all of that course of, which was essential to us and the studio, and really feel like we have captured this unlucky imaginative and prescient that Daniel is having of being trapped on this nightmare that he is been in.”
If “Eunjangdo” was a collection finale, the sudden look of a wildly violent AI Mr. Miyagi would doubtless nonetheless ship the fandom up in arms. Fortuitously, the sixth and closing season of “Cobra Kai” is being break up into three components, which signifies that the remaining 5 episodes might very properly shed extra mild on the venerable sensei’s previous. Whether or not this occurs by way of flashbacks to Takahashi’s model of Miyagi or extra AI stays to be seen.
“Cobra Kai” season 6 half 3 will premiere on Netflix in 2025.