WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 3 of Cobra Kai, now streaming on Netflix.
In today's landscape, it's commonplace for big casting announcements to break long before films and television shows ever grace the big or small screens. However, in the case of Netflix's Cobra Kai, executive producers and co-showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg explained why they prefer to leave the big reveals for the final product.
While discussing the return of Elisabeth Shue's Ali Mills with TVLine, Heald said, "But we hark back to that age where there wasn’t an internet. You weren’t bombarded with new clips every day and first look pictures, and the barrage of material that now has become commonplace and necessary to pull in an audience in such a fragmented world. We remember going to the movies and discovering something for the first time that wasn’t in the trailer or commercial, and how magical that was. That’s harder to pull off these days, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep trying to do that."
"We did it with Kreese in the first season," he continued. "Martin Kove is one of the great champions of the show, and we love that, but that whole first season, there were a lot of therapeutic phone calls of asking him to please not say anything. The moment it’s discovered, it will be an explosion, and you’ll be able to talk about it forever because people will want to. It’ll just be that much bigger. So that was the test balloon, I would say, for keeping the secret with Ali."
Ali Mills was the girlfriend of Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid. However, while she eventually wound up with Danny LaRusso, the character was absent from the next two films. Season 2 of Cobra Kai alluded to her return when she responded to a Facebook message from Johnny, but only after he'd abandoned his cellphone, leaving her fate in regards to the Netflix series up in the air.
COBRA KAI takes place over 30 years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament with the continuation of the inescapable conflict between Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). Season 3 finds everyone reeling in the aftermath of the violent high school brawl between their dojos, which has left Miguel in a precarious condition. While Daniel searches for answers in his past and Johnny seeks redemption, Kreese further manipulates his vulnerable students with his own vision of dominance. The soul of the Valley is at stake, and the fate of every student and sensei hangs in the balance.
Cobra Kai stars William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni Decenzo, Peyton List and Martin Kove. Season 3 is now on Netflix.
Source: TVLine