All through Cobra Kai, the reminiscence of Mr. Miyagi has all the time loomed giant, however in Season 6 Half 2, that turned just a little extra literal. After looking for new clues about his former mentor-slash-father determine’s lethal historical past with the Sekai Taikai event, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) had a vivid dream about Miyagi in each youthful and older kinds.
In Episode 10, “Eunjangdo,” Daniel dreamed of himself combating a youthful model of Miyagi on the Sekai Taikai and listening to from the aged model that his grasp by no means advised him the reality about his previous as a result of Daniel wasn’t robust sufficient to simply accept the reality.
The duty of each selecting a brand new actor—Brian Takahashi—to play such an iconic character and counting on visible results to resurrect the visage of Pat Morita was a doubly heavy job for the present’s creators.
Co-creator Hayden Schlossberg advised TV Insider that the choice to visualise a youthful model of Miyagi for the struggle was virtually useful. “We similar to the thought of getting a glimpse at Miyagi by Daniel’s desires as a result of it permits us just a little little bit of creativity when it comes to what Miyagi would appear to be. He didn’t know Miyagi at age 30 or 40…and so it simply gave us the liberty to form of solid any person that we felt would appear to be Mr Miyagi, act like Mr Miyagi.”
Nonetheless, it was a tall order to search out simply the correct individual. “It’s robust to solid anyone that matches one or two standards, not to mention look precisely like this individual and likewise be good at appearing and martial arts. And also you strive your finest to search out any person that you just simply imagine, and it’s important to belief that the viewers is prepared to droop their disbelief, they know what’s happening right here,” Schlossberg mentioned. “We felt like we may use a unique actor as a result of it was only a fully completely different period in his life.”
As for the extra acquainted imagery of the late nice Pat Morita, nicely, that took some method as nicely.
“We’ve seen that deepfake expertise the place films and TV exhibits can convey again characters, and we like the thought of seeing him as Daniel remembered him and as we remembered him and you realize it entails visible results homes,” he defined. “You see these uncanny valley in-betweens. Consider me, we’ve seen the scariest variations, the recreation, and also you simply undergo a course of the place you attempt to convey it to that place the place the viewers can perceive what you’re going for. And we ended up feeling actually comfortable.”
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Cobra Kai, Season 6 Half 3, 2025, Netflix