Cobra Kai creators warn Kreese is 'more dangerous than ever' in season 6

The first episode of Cobra Kai season 6 is called "Peacetime in the Valley" — and honestly, the students and senseis of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang Karate have earned a little peace.

After defeating billionaire madman Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and his ruthless Cobra Kai dojo — and earning a spot for their dojos in the prestigious Sekai Taikai tournament — Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) are finally able to let their guards down. "It’s the first time since the first episode of the series that there is no Cobra Kai in the Valley," says Jon Hurwitz, who created Cobra Kai with Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg. "It's a new and interesting place to start, seeing all the characters that we care about dealing with the aftermath of victory. We try to let the characters enjoy that for as long as they can before conflict rears its ugly head."

Which, of course, it does. The Big 3 recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to tease what's ahead in part 1 of their three-part final season. Hot topics included (but are not limited to): Will Johnny and Daniel be able to get their students into fighting shape for the Sekai Taikai without killing each other? Can former rivals Sam (Mary Mouser) and Tory (Peyton List) find a path to friendship now that they're both on the same team? And now that he's escaped from prison, what sinister scheme does John Kreese (Martin Kove) have in store for Miyagi-Do? Let's begin.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Daniel and Johnny are going to be training their students together for the Seikai Taikai tournament. Can you give us a preview of their working relationship this season?

JON HURWITZ: We've seen it all with Johnny and Daniel before, but this is what's fun this season is that Johnny is going all in to working with these guys. It was always sort of like a partnership of convenience, but early in the season, Johnny ends up recognizing that he doesn't want to continue John Kreese's legacy. He wants a more positive approach to karate and to distance himself from this father figure who he hates so much. He decides to lean into Miyagi-Do and working with Daniel and Chozen, who have made him a better sensei and have helped the students. Daniel welcomes this and is excited about this, that they're all going to be on the same page for once, while allowing Johnny to bring some of his techniques and flourishes and his teachings in there. It's the two of them bringing what they bring to the table but learning from each other is the intent there.

But is Johnny capable of being Miyagi-Do? Or will he revert back to his natural instincts, which are either good or bad depending on your perspective? And how will Daniel handle that? Early on, you’ll see there’s a change on the Miyagi-Do patch, there’s a little eagle there — so he's supposedly accepting part of Johnny's philosophies within Miyagi-Do. Is Daniel going to be willing to make adjustments to his vision of Miyagi-Do as well? There’s conflict between the two of them. Can they truly coexist in the same dojo and be under the exact same banner?

In the trailer, we see some workers throwing the Cobra Kai sign into a dumpster. I would ask if Cobra Kai is gone for good, but Cobra Kai never dies. So, what is going on with Cobra Kai?

JOSH HEALD: Terry Silver's Cobra Kai is gone for good. It was destroyed at the end of last season and we're seeing the remnants of that being thrown away and demolished. We begin our season in peacetime in the valley for the first time in a while. It’s nice. It’s the first time since the first episode of the series that there is no Cobra Kai in the Valley. Whether that means Cobra Kai is done for good remains to be seen because like you said, Cobra Kai never dies. It was a new and interesting place to start, seeing all the characters that we care about dealing with the aftermath of victory. We try to let the characters enjoy that for as long as they can before conflict rears its ugly head.

You mentioned the new patch, but we don’t know yet whether Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang will consolidate under a new dojo name. What can you preview about that?

HAYDEN SCHLOSSBERG: We can tease that in the first episode, the big discussion becomes, “What is this dojo's name?” Right from the start, they know that they have to resolve this. If they're going to be a unified dojo, they need to at least come to terms on the name of it. You’ll see all those discussions and the boardroom meetings about it and how it all ends up shaping up.

The trailer also reveals that Kreese is back in the karate game, and he's managed to reunite with Kim Da-eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim). This can't be a good thing for Team Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang.

HURWITZ: Well, the last time Kreese saw Johnny and Daniel, they left him to rot in prison and said some not-kind things on their way out. So, this is not a John Kreese who's happy with Johnny and Daniel, and he is hell-bent on destroying and humiliating them. Him returning to Master Kim's dojo where he learned, he's going to be put to the test to see how much he truly embraces “no mercy,” and how much he is ready to embrace the teachings that Master Kim gave him all those years ago.

Kreese has always been pretty hardcore, but he's always had a little bit of a soft spot for Johnny. This time around, the soft spot is gone. So, Kreese is potentially more dangerous than ever. Partnering with Kim Da-eun, who has been eager to please her grandfather and continue his traditions, [she and Kreese] have a long history. It’ll be great to see them working together — great for us as viewers, but not necessarily great for Johnny and Daniel.

Let’s move on to the kids. For one thing, fans are wondering if Sam and Tory might be able to come to an understanding this season. What can you tell us about that?

HEALD: Sam and Tory is one of the most interesting relationships on the show. It has such a charge to it. It was born out of conflict and antagonism, with these two facing each other in multiple fights over multiple seasons. But in the timeline of the show, that's a fairly condensed period of time. Everything's still very raw, and they're still coming off this newfound alliance in terms of them being on the same side for a moment. We want to begin that storyline anew in season six in an honest way, where you're trying to find your footing with a former rival. We’ve seen that with Johnny and Daniel before. We've seen that with Miguel [Xolo Maridueña] and Robby [Tanner Buchanan] before.

This is a new path for Sam and Tory. Will this peace last? Can they find enough common ground, and what will that friendship — or at least an alliance — look like, and will it have positive or negative effects on each of their fighting styles? We dig into all of that in the opening episodes.

SCHLOSSBERG: Part of the reason that we have 15 episodes this season is because we wanted to tie up all the characters' storylines. We knew we had a lot of characters. Whoever your favorite character is, we have a story intended for them and they all have their spotlight moments.

HEALD: Miguel and Robby, they're both looking to the future. Each of them has a different idea of what comes next, and a different idea of what they need to do to achieve their dreams — and therein lies the beginning of potential conflict. And you have characters like Hawk [Jacob Bertrand] and Demetri [Gianni DeCenzo] who have had a great friendship and a tumultuous period, and they're entering their last year of high school. All their longstanding hopes and dreams are suddenly on the line. Will that be pure happiness, or will that end up a little bit messy? That's something that we get into as well.

What can you tell us about this mysterious box that Daniel finds in Mr. Miyagi's house?

HURWITZ: We're really excited about that. Mr. Miyagi [the late Pat Morita] is probably the most beloved character in the Miyagi-verse in general. What he brought to the original Karate Kid films was so special, and his relationship with Daniel — there’s no Cobra Kai without that special relationship between Miyagi and Daniel. Throughout the series we've always tried to examine Daniel's relationship with Miyagi, and it's continued to have an impact on him to this day. As we’re at the final season, Daniel is also figuring out his own relationship with karate moving forward now that Cobra Kai is gone in the Valley, and we wanted to put his belief system to the test. And all of us have parents and mentors in your lives that, when you're young, you view as gods in a sense, infallible, and they're perfect in every single way.

We thought it would be interesting to truly humanize Mr. Miyagi. There's a lot of his life that we don't know. While he was this great man that Daniel knew and that we all have fallen in love with, did he make mistakes in his life? Are there things in his life that he regrets? To bury a box under the floorboards of his house, maybe there are some things that he wasn't sharing with the rest of the world. This season, Daniel gets a glimpse into this box, and what is in there will cause him to question the man that he knew, and it sends him on a journey throughout the season of reexamining his relationship with Mr. Miyagi and the man that he was.

Cobra Kai season 6 part one premieres Thursday, July 18, on Netflix.

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