The Cobra Kai panel at WonderCon 2019 confirmed that the YouTube premium series takes place in an extended "Miyagi-verse" that includes Ralph Macchio's famous karate student Daniel LaRusso and another Karate Kid, Hilary Swank's Julie Pierce.
Swank starred in the 1994 sequel, The Next Karate Kid, which was set after the trilogy that involved Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi mentoring Daniel It dealt with Miyagi tutoring her character, Julie, in Boston, and now the Cobra Kai creative team has revealed she is indeed part of the show's fabric.
This confirmed that this spinoff series includes all the students Miyagi looked after, and essentially rules out the 2010 The Karate Kid remake that saw Jackie Chan's Mr. Han train Jaden Smith's Dre Parker from being part of the show's world.
While Swank's Julie was mentioned by name, there's still no official word if she has plans to join the show, although it's clear the writers have noted the possibility.
Cobra Kai Season 1 brought Daniel face to face with his old nemesis, William Zabka's Johnny Lawrence, as the Cobra Kai dojo stepped up to fill the gap Miyagi and Daniel left. It became a truly connected story, though, when Miyagi's enemy from the first movie, Martin Kove's John Kreese, appeared to remind Johnny that no mercy must be shown or else Cobra Kai would be seen as weak.
The illustrates just how much Cobra Kai is pulling from the old movies. Seeing as how Daniel wants to train his daughter, Mary Mouser's Sam, to rival Johnny's charges, this could leave the door open to have Julie join forces with the LaRussos later down the line.
Cobra Kai Season 2 returns for YouTube Premium subscribers on April 24. The season sees the return of Zabka and Macchio in their iconic roles, as well Martin Kove reprising his Karate Kid role as the Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese.