'Cobra Kai' Season 2: Is That Character Gone? And Will That Other One Come Back?

If you've made it to the end of Cobra Kai season two, you've probably got as many questions as we did about where it leaves things off. The creators and stars of the show answered some of those questions, under the condition that the stories ran after the season premiered and with lots of spoiler warnings.So this story addresses a lot of the events of Cobra Kai's second season finale. Don't read this until you've finished the new season of Cobra Kai.Major spoilers follow.

What’s Next For Miguel?

Well, we're going to be spending the next year wondering what's going to happen to Miguel (Xolo Mariduena). What a cliffhanger to end on. At the end of the epic Karate fight in the school, Miguel did the right thing and showed mercy to Robbie (Tanner Buchanan). But teenagers are volatile and Robbie took the advantage, kicking Miguel down the stairs. In the hospital, they're not even sure that Miguel is going to wake up!"The audience should rest assured that we know what happens to Miguel from this moment forward," Josh Heald told /Film. "They should also live in that horror and uncertainty and anticipation with finding out."Oh, I am. Frankly, this is my Infinity War. I'm not really worried whether Spider-Man and Black Panther are going to come back in Endgame. I don't think Miguel is dead, but he could be very seriously injured. He landed on his back on the railing. Is Cobra Kai going to go so dark that he may never walk again and has to live with that? No matter what, he's going to need serious rehab to ever do Karate again."We have a clear sense of what we want to do going forward with Miguel," Jon Hurwitz said. "The fun of that moment for us is, and it's weird to use the word fun, is as a writer to lead the audience to a place where they want it to go. They love Johnny and they love Miguel, they love that relationship. I think it's really fulfilling for the audience, the moment where Johnny's lesson is getting through to Miguel and he makes the choice to show mercy in that moment. So for about five seconds, or maybe three seconds, the audience gets what they want there and then everything spirals out of control and the exact opposite happens of what you want to see. The character that you love get injured in such a serious way. For us, part of the thematically what we're exploring here is both Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso, despite their rivalry all season, are trying their best to be good role models to these students, be good senseis. Sometimes even when you do everything right, bad things happen. Season three will be exploring how do you respond to that."The shockwaves of this ripple out into Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny (William Zabka). Daniel has promised his wife (Courtney Henggeler) to stop teaching Karate. It's understandable in the moment to think such a drastic action is required. Johnny has been ousted from his own dojo, and he was just starting to hit it off with Miguel's mom (Vanessa Rubio)."There's a good reason why we're doing what we're doing and we feel like it should pay off emotionally and just entertaining," Hayden Schlossberg said. "For us, really it boils down to the journey that we're taking these characters on. This is something that has to happen with Johnny right now. Every season, we're trying to raise the stakes while also keeping the fun of what we love about Karate Kid. We think the way we ended things in season two definitely raises the stakes going into season three. We already have ideas of how to utilize all that stuff."Mariduena actually didn't know if he was coming back. I think it's safe to assume he'll wake up in some capacity, but they haven't told Mariduena anything about season three."Obviously reading the script, you're kind of like, 'What the? Where are they setting this up for?'" Mariduena said. "Although they do have a very, very, very loose idea of what they would like to happen if we get a third season, even to me they haven't said specifically, 'Hey, this is where we're taking Miguel' other than we end season two he's in a hospital bed not knowing is he alive or not. So even I'm still wondering am I dead? What's happening?"

Is Ali Coming Back?

When Johnny started learning how to use the internet, he looked up Ali, Elisabeth Shue's character from The Karate Kid. We've all been there, looking up exes to see where they are today. The final shot of season two revealed that Ali accepted Johnny's friend request. So, uh, have they spoken to Shue about season three?"We're never going to admit to any conversations that we've had with actors from the original or not in regards to whether or not they'll appear on Cobra Kai," Heald said. "I will say that we talk with a lot of the actors from Karate Kid, Karate Kid II, Karate Kid III, The Next Karate Kid. We have a lot of ongoing discussions. We've been able to meet people very organically through the process of making the show. The fact that we work with so many actors from the original movie already inevitably ends up introducing us to more people sometimes."Personally, I'm holding out for Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank), but Shue seems a bit more likely. Her character was directly involved with both Daniel and Johnny, and the credibility Cobra Kai has earned make it not so far fetched that an Oscar-nominated actor would want to return. If it happens, she'll be just as surprising as John Kreese (Martin Kove), Daniel's mom (Randee Heller) or the Cobra Kai gang (Ron Thomas, Tony O'Dell, Rob Garrison)."The fun of this show as a series is really not hinting or letting our audience know when some of those people may or may not come back," Heald said. "Because when they do, we always want it to carry the weight of their characters re-entering this world where you're not really fully prepared for it but when it happens it makes complete sense."

Is This Rock Bottom for Johnny?

Poor Johnny. He reopened Cobra Kai as a way to bring honor back to the dojo and give his life a sense of purpose. Now he's been forced out by Kreese and all of his students reject him. Johnny's worse off now than he was in the series premiere of Cobra Kai."I think arguably you could say he is," Zabka agreed. "He's been put through the ringer this season and he's lost a lot and he's dealing with a lot. I always said this when they pitched the story to me at the very beginning: Johnny has avoided Cobra Kai for so many years, for him to open that back up in a way is opening Pandora's Box. As soon as he opens the dojo, LaRusso comes into his life and he kind of summons his past in a way."Yet Zabka is optimistic that Johnny will rise like the phoenix."As hard as it is that he's down at the end, it's actually a birthing to a new day for him," Zabka continued. "I can't wait for the first episode of season three, God willing, knock on wood, to see how he's transforming and changing coming back. This needed to happen for Johnny in his evolution process. The one thing that was super hard was the idea of walking away from what he created because he has a real love for these kids and for what he's trying to do. So he's not done with that yet. This is just a beat where at the end of the show, he's recounting what he's gone through and throws his bottle against the car, and he's stepping into a new day. I can't wait for that next first scene."Really, Johnny's battle is probably less with Daniel and more with Kreese. Kreese was the one who corrupted his youth. Kreese interfered when Johnny tried to turn Cobra Kai around. That would be a great conflict for season three.Cobra Kai season two is now streaming on YouTube Premium.