When last we saw the cast of Cobra Kai, as the show continued to work its way through a sixth and final season, the young fighters and their trainers had arrived at the Sekai Taikai, a global tournament that’s expected to push every warrior to his or her limit. Given the fact that Cobra Kai Season 6 is being divided up into three segments, this can be considered the Empire Strikes Back of the final season. And there are a lot of questions still lingering after Cobra Kai Season 5, which we expect to be addressed. But first, there’s a new threat that’s about to enter the dojo. Get ready for The Iron Dragons.
Obviously, the final scene in Cobra Kai Season 6 Episode 5 teased the return of John Kreese (Martin Kove) at the head of the Cobra Kai team. And then, on top of that, we learned that Tory (Peyton List) had fled to Kreese after she felt betrayed by her friends in Miyagi-Do. That will cause serious drama. We couldn’t help but notice, however, that when Netflix revealed Mortal Kombat star Lewis Tan was joining the show, he’d be leading a new team known as The Iron Dragons. And that got us curious.
Naturally, the California kids from Miyagi-Do are going to face new fighting styles, and harsh combat techniques, when they get in the ring of the global Sekai Taikai. During a Cobra Kai press day, though, I asked Chozen actor Yuki Okumato what karate fans can expect out of this new danger presented by the Iron Dragons. Okumoto knows a thing or two about entering The Karate Kid series as a villain. He made things very hard for Ralph Macchio way back in The Karate Kid: Part 2. And when asked about The Iron Dragons, Okumoto told CinemaBlend:
I'll tell you this much. The Iron Dragons are quite an elite group of martial artists. And I think they pose the biggest threat to the whole tournament, (and) all the competitors. They come from a different mindset, I think, and they have this different level of competitiveness that nobody's ever seen before. So I think, as far as who they are, they're the top ones, and they're going to really push Miyagi-Do for sure. And hopefully we will prevail. We don't know. But they're the toughest.
And then, perhaps in a nod to the upcoming Wicked movie that’s about to reach theaters, Ralph Macchio chimed in with this spot-on analogy for The Iron Dragons.
They create the ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore’ (moment) for our kids.
This is a big part of the reason why I love Cobra Kai as much as I do. The show has been relying on familiar storytelling cliches throughout its run. You can’t quite call Cobra Kai unpredictable. So when you get to a global tournament like the Sekai Taikai, there has to be a moment when the kids you have been following realizes they are in over their heads, from a skillset point of view. That happens for Daniel (Macchio) in the All-Valley in the original The Karate Kid. Again, we’re not reinventing the wheel.
But in Cobra Kai, it matters because we care about the people in the fights. We have become invested in Samantha (Mary Mouser), Miguel (Xolo Mariduena), Robby (Tanner Buchanan) and the young fighters. So we will tune in to see if and how they prevail.
The middle five episodes of Cobra Kai will be available on Friday, November 15, for those with a Netflix subscription. Then, we expect the final season to come to a conclusion in 2025. Stay tuned!
