Germain Lussier, io9:The first five seasons ofCobra Kaiare all 10 episodes.
This year were getting 15 spread out across three time periods.
Jon Hurwitz:This was right after we finished making season five.
Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence, and Yuji Okumoto as Chozen in Cobra Kai. Photo: Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix
We had a powwow with Sony and Netflix talking about whats next.
And 20 episodes felt like too much.
So were like, This should be the final season.
Cobra Kaicreators Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, and Jon Hurwitz. Photo: Curtis Baker/Netflix
Is there a way to make it somewhere in between 10 and 20?
And we all landed on 15.
And once we landed on 15, we were thinking, How do we want that to come out?
Cobra Kaiseason 6 will peek into Miyagi’s past. Screenshot: Netflix
Its like we build to a mid-season finale and then build from there to the ending.
And this season, it was like, OK, well, three chunks of five would make sense.
Its almost like three acts in a bigger story.
Miyagi-Do trains for the Saikai Taikai. Photo: Curtis Baker/Netflix
And thats just something that we decided to do creatively.
And when we talked about that with Netflix, they loved the idea of the three drops.
And thats where it came from.
The kids ofCobra Kaiin the woods. Photo: Curtis Baker/Netflix
So weve known this for a very long time.
And it is all by design.
To this point, the show has really avoided anything Miyagi.
He is obviously a part of it.
Josh Heald:This was something weve wanted to do for a while.
It became more in focus as we got deeper into the series.
And that became kind of an interesting story we wanted to start telling.
Theres the story he tells Daniel in the first movie and the second movie.
And then theres a lot of connecting of dots that happens as a result.
And thats just reality for a lot of people.
People share parts of themselves, sometimes 99% of themselves with other people.
The All Valley kind of had a blueprint from the other movies and this does not.
Who cares what the reality is?
And then the third part is What is the reality?
We actually did look at tournaments and see whats been happening.
What are the best fight scenarios that would take our characters and create the most entertaining story?
io9: I love that, I cant wait.
Theres no more story you could really tell.
So Im wondering, how do you feel about the journey at this moment?
Do you feel like you accomplished everything you wanted to at the beginning?
Did you leave anything on the table?
Tell me a little bit about how you guys feel right now.
We achieved everything in this series that we set out to do.
And that was intentional in a way to definitely leave something on the table.
Theres alwaysunless everybody is just being lined up and shot, which could happen!
It hasnt come out yet!
[Laughs]theres always more to tell that youll be curious about.
And the three of us would love to continue to work within this universe.
Its our favorite universe to play in.
[All laugh.]
But at the end of the day, this is a story that is based in the Valley.
And its about what happens after the tournament and where everyone settles and how the Valley is left.
And thats the end of this chapter of this interview.
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