‘Cobra Kai Never Dies’: The Creators on Saying Goodbye, for Now

Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the creators of the karate-centered Netflix series “Cobra Kai,” can’t agree on which of them would win in a fight.

“I would say me,” Hurwitz said.

Heald disputed this. “I’m taking Muay Thai right now,” he said. “But I think Hayden would be the most creative. He’d do something dirty.”

“I’m doping their water bottles,” Schlossberg said. He also mentioned blackmail.

Happily, in their years spent making “Cobra Kai,” which just completed its sixth and final season, they have never come to actual blows. Or crane kicks. Hurwitz and Schlossberg, the writers of the “Harold and Kumar” movies, met (as all cool kids do) in high school debate club in the 1990s. Heald, a writer of the “Hot Tub Time Machine” movies, became friends with Hurwitz a few years later, as college dorm mates. Once all three had been introduced, they bonded over a shared obsession: the “Karate Kid” movies.

“Our ‘Star Wars,’” Heald said.

The 1984 movie “The Karate Kid,” set in the San Fernando Valley, culminated in a championship fight between Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), the bullied child of a single mother, and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), the bully. Two sequels were quickly released. An animated series and a couple of reboots — one starring Hilary Swank and another with Jayden Smith — followed. Had the franchise tapped out?

Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg didn’t think so. They had hidden “Karate Kid” Easter eggs in nearly all of their films, and for years they had talked about writing a Johnny Lawrence movie. But it was only talk. They had no hope of getting that movie greenlighted.

Then in 2016, having witnessed the rise of streaming and the success of 1980s nostalgia plays like “Stranger Things” and “Fuller House,” they retooled their pitch, reimagining the movie as a series.

They convinced Zabka to sign on over a chips-and-salsa lunch in the Valley. Then they flew to New York to persuade Macchio. Sony Pictures Television agreed to produce, and the series was snatched up for YouTube’s since-abandoned original programming venture, debuting in 2018. (It moved to Netflix ahead of Season 3.) Over the years, the series has supported the return of most of the characters from the original films and raised a new generation of practitioners, who train at the rival dojos Daniel and Johnny operate.

But no karate match can last forever. And on Thursday, “Cobra Kai” released its final five episodes, culminating in the Sekai Takai, an invented international tournament that occasionally devolves into a free-for-all brawl. (“Karate Kid” superfans need not mourn for long: The franchise continues later this year with the film “Karate Kid: Legends,” scripted by a different writer.)

On a video call a few weeks before the final episodes were released, the creators discussed legacy, lost teeth and the lessons of “Cobra Kai.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Do you know any karate?

JON HURWITZ Every season our stunt team comes to us and says, “Hey, stop into the dojo and we’ll teach you guys a few things.” But we’re always just so, so busy making the show. Every season, without fail, it’s like, “Nope, didn’t learn any karate.”

The “Karate Kid” franchise seemed exhausted. What made you think that there was still gas in that I.P. tank?

JOSH HEALD As we got to know each other in the late ’90s, we revisited the movies that we loved as kids. We started talking about, like, can you imagine what it must have been like after Johnny Lawrence gets kicked in the head? That must have been the most horrible second half of a senior year. There was tragedy in there. Also comedy. It was just this fever dream. But the golden age of streaming really changed everything. A serialized story didn’t have to be an hour and a half long or two hours long. You could have a serialized story that could blend genres and play out over the course of an entire season.

HAYDEN SCHLOSSBERG And we were put on this earth to bring William Zabka back.

You start making the series. What was it like to play in the world you had loved since childhood?

HEALD That first season was the hardest any of the three of us has ever worked, with the least amount of sleep. It felt like one of us was awake at all times, always writing, always prepping. But every day was this new present that you’d unwrap. It literally was the experience of being able to step inside of a movie universe and control things that have always felt immovable and now you can treat them like action figures.

Who decided that this would be the last season?

HURWITZ As we were making Season 5, we were feeling like, OK, we’re starting to wind down. So we started to have that conversation with Netflix and Sony and said, “Fifteen episodes feels like the right amount.” This audience needed to have a proper ending to their series.

Why end it now?

SCHLOSSBERG Every season, we took this “Rocky” approach of: Let’s build to a bigger event. In Season 6, we had this world karate tournament. Where do you go from a world karate tournament? To space? Listen, we love this world, and we are thinking about spinoffs and all those things. But this one needed to end.

HURWITZ Emotionally, this season is the biggest yet. People have loved these characters since 1984. These final five episodes are the culmination of these stories. So there’s a weight to these final episodes.

Is there a real-world equivalent to the Sekai Takai?

HEALD There are world karate tournaments, and some of the actors this season, they compete in them. It’s not as bloody as we make it. There are various protections put in place to make sure that people aren’t losing teeth and lives.

Do you ever get bored writing all these karate tournaments?

SCHLOSSBERG We have to get into it. If we’re feeling that it’s wrong, we know the audience will feel it. When we’re writing these fights, there is a bit of: OK, how many different ways can you do a fight? One of the things we did this season was to open up the structure of a fight. Now we have different team events. We have to keep it creatively interesting for ourselves.

How do you up the stakes of the fight choreography?

HURWITZ A lot of it has to do with the groundwork that you lay before the fight. So it’s making the opponents feel more evil, making our characters feel more vulnerable, throwing emotional obstacles at them as they’re about to enter these fights.

Was there ever any doubt about who would win these final fights?

HEALD For the finale, what you see onscreen is a realization of what we’ve had in our heads for many seasons. There’s some zigs and zags that got us there that we could never have foreseen, but it resolves in the way that we’ve always intended.

So what are the lessons of “Cobra Kai”?

HURWITZ Have an open mind to others. At the beginning of the series, Daniel LaRusso saw Johnny Lawrence and is like, “That guy is evil.” Johnny felt the same way about Daniel. By the end, the characters have been forced to step outside their comfort zones and find common ground and move forward. It’s possible for people to be friends who have different philosophies. If you can work together, then great things can happen.

Another lesson, I would hope, is that you’re more than your worst or your best moment in high school.

HURWITZ Yeah. Just because you have one bad moment doesn’t mean your life is over. You keep fighting, and you keep moving on. You can have second chances and third chances and fourth chances. You can still be a good person.

Could “Cobra Kai” return?

SCHLOSSBERG We have our own fan fiction in our minds. Cobra Kai never dies, you know? We’ve seen how there’s always a new generation.

HURWITZ This is the last chapter of this story, but we are not ready to leave this universe. We have to wait and see what happens.