Getty The cast of 'Cobra Kai' attends the premiere screening and conversation of YouTube Original's "Cobra Kai" Season 2 at The Paley Center for Media
The fourth season of “Cobra Kai” will debut in December of this year. As fans are aware, season 3 ended with Johnny Lawrence (William “Billy” Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) finally trusting each other enough to co-teach their martial arts students to prepare for the upcoming All Valley Tournament.
The Creators of ‘Cobra Kai’ Discussed the Importance of the Show’s Fourth Season
During an August 2021 interview with AwardsWatch, the creators of “Cobra Kai,” Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg, discussed the show’s upcoming season. Heald revealed when the writers had planned on Johnny and Daniel becoming allies.
“The most important thing about season 4 is that we have been writing leading up to season 4 for this entire time. We always knew that moment that these two iconic characters could lay down their swords, you know, and could look at each other with new found respect. And you know, not just a common enemy, but the right time and the right place to actually try to make a go of this,” said Heald.
The executive producer also explained that “Cobra Kai” season 4 is similar to the show’s first season, which premiered in 2018.
“It’s like season 1 all over again in our heads in terms of where you’re creativity is coming from. Because you are in a brand new world with these two characters in the types of headspace that you have the freedom to, you know, to expand and contract,” said Heald. “Whereas the same could be said for season 1, where we hadn’t seen [Johnny and Daniel] in a while and we’re reintroducing what their vibe is as adults, now we get to explore what are their vibes where they’re not, you know, trying to be up in each other’s face or run away from each other, complain about each other, you know, and they’re making concerted effort and I think that’s a really fun place to jump off from and we want to deliver upon that.”
Schlossberg then noted that in the fourth season “everybody is aligned [and] everybody is on the same path,” as opposed to season 3, where many characters had separate storylines.
“There’s this All Valley Tournament that kind of gives the season a little bit more, you know, of a kind a big uber movie feel to it, you know. It’s still got some of the soap opera elements of weaving from different stories and different characters. But there’s this overarching, you know, destination that you’re feeling that everybody has their path towards and that’s a cool thing with season 4,” said the writer.
Hayden Schlossberg Shared Similar Comments in May 2021
While speaking to Gold Derby in May 2021, alongside Heald and Hurwitz, Schlossberg shared similar comments about Daniel and Johnny moving past their intense rivalry.
“From the very beginning when we conceived the show, we really wanted to set up these classic rivals in a way where you saw their similarities in addition to their differences and you realized that while they are the ying and the yang on opposite ends of the karate spectrum, they, in a lot of ways, parallel each other in terms of their backstories,” explained Schlossberg.
He also revealed that “it was always [the writers’] intention” to have Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) help Daniel and Johnny realize their shared similarities, which she does in season 3, episode 10.
READ NEXT: Why ‘Cobra Kai’ Stars Say Tanner Buchanan Is Similar to Robby