'Cobra Kai' Season 6, Part 2: Ralph Macchio exploring Mr. Miyagi's dark past leaves Daniel LaRusso 'spiralling'

The excitement and thrills continue for Cobra Kai fans with the release of Season 6, Part 2 on Netflix Nov. 15, the final season for the show. The most notable element of the upcoming episodes will be the Sekai Taikai competition in Barcelona, Spain, where Miyagi-Do is set to face old and new competitors.

"We're headed to the world stage," William Zabka, who plays Johnny Lawrence, told Yahoo Canada . "This is the bad news bears go to Barcelona."

"We have such a great new bunch of characters that come in that are so exciting to watch. ... Watching these amazing acrobatic martial arts happen from all the different teams and these colourful characters that brought so much richness to the show, we were fully entertained, and felt like we were watching a little Cirque de Soleil karate tournament. So really, the fighting, this tournament, it trumps all the other tournaments, by far, in that aspect. ... It was thrilling for us to watch and to be a part of, and then the stories interwoven with all that just makes it just so much fun and deep and rich and meaningful and entertaining."

Xolo Maridueña, who plays Miguel Diaz, highlighted that the show's cast is brining their "best moves" for the upcoming five episodes.

"We worked tirelessly to make sure that this season was the best and the stunts are the same," Maridueña said. "We've even added some new martial artists, made them actors."

"We're getting to see a new side that we haven't really introduced to this show before."

'The beauty of it was knowing this might be the last time I struggle'

With this being the last season of Cobra Kai, after Part 3 of the season is released in 2025, Mary Mouser, who plays Samantha LaRusso, said knowing the cast was coming to the end of the series helped them push through the most difficult physical elements of the season.

"Genuinely the challenge, I think we all took it to heart," Mouser said. "We all trained really, really hard for this one."

"It definitely was a huge thing to take on, but in the best way possible. I think it was like, everything that in the past I might have let frustrate me or really get me down had a more positive level where, even when I struggled with something, the beauty of it was knowing this might be the last time I struggle with learning this new skill. So let's enjoy even the falls and the times that I slip up. Let's really bask in every aspect of learning a new skill. So I think there was a nice note of positivity, even to the hard stuff."

Someone we're looking at for Season 6, Part 2 is Peyton List's character Tory Nichols. At the end of Part 1, Tory decides she's going to join John Kreese's (Martin Kove) new Cobra Kai, betraying Miyagi-Do. This comes after the devastating death of Tory's mom.

"The last time we see her, at the end of Part 1, she's walking out of Miyagi-Do backyard. She doesn't feel like she has a shot at the captain's spot, and she leaves behind Robbie, leaves behind Sam, leaves behind everyone," List said. "And it's kind of her making that decision for what she's going to do with her life after that."

'It's one of the richest storylines I've had'

What's been particularly satisfying about Cobra Kai is how the series very much tells a new and unique story, but continues to maintain that connection with the original Karate Kid films, particularly by finding ways of including Mr. Miyagi, played by the late Pat Morita, into the show.

In the first part of Season 6 we saw Daniel LaRusso, played by Ralph Macchio, unearth some information about Mr. Miyagi's dark past, his boxing gym history and how he fled after reportedly being wanted for assault and robbery.

"It's a way to inform new stories going forward. Having Miyagi woven throughout the series was important and I think that the writers have done a great job with that," Macchio said. "This is a new way to keep him in the series and to inform narrative and story, and then knock LaRusso a little bit off his centre and knock him off his balance."

"We want characters to be overcoming obstacles and create conflict for good entertainment. And throwing curveballs in his way, and he bites down and hard, and winds up kind of spiralling a bit, personally, internally and externally as a sensei, and has to recalibrate and reset himself to the proper focus. And without those those elements, it just becomes kind of milk, toast and lame. And in this case, it's one of the richest storylines I've had in the series, and leads to some really hopefully powerful, entertaining moments."