Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 6 of Cobra Kai.On paper, a show likeCobra Kaiprobably shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, nor should it have become the global karate phenomenon that it grew into. Taking a beloved ’80s classic likeThe Karate Kidand then expanding on the universe and its characters, only to continue plot threads from the original film and craft meaningful redemption arcs worthy of the characters. What the team behind this series was able to accomplish is seriously impressive, and it has successfully introduced a whole new audience to theKarate Kidstory. However, there was one ball thatCobra Kaidropped in its final season, one other character we wish could have been included in the narrative:Hilary Swank’s Julie Pierce fromThe Next Karate Kid.
‘Cobra Kai’ Should Have Called Back to ‘The Next Karate Kid’
While it was never terribly likely that an Oscar-winning actress like Hilary Swank was going to ever come back as Julie Pierce, the fact thatCobra Kaidoesn’t even acknowledge her small part in theKarate Kidlegacy is something that just doesn’t feel right. No,Julie never needed to become a major characterin theCobra Kaistory; there were already far too many characters to juggle in the final season. However, her own unique relationship with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) — as seen inThe Next Karate Kid— is something that Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) maybe should have considered. The series was notorious for bringing back characters from all three of the original films (including many that we forgot about entirely), and so it just seemed odd that it wouldn’t expand slightly further to include the fourth film as well. Sure,The Next Karate Kidisn’t exactly a classic, but it’s still a part of the Miyagi-verse saga, and worthy of reexamination.
This is perhaps especially truenow thatKarate Kid: Legendsis set to rope theJackie Chan-led 2010Karate Kidremake into the franchise’s larger continuity, leaving many to wonder what happened to Julie Pierce after all these years. We last saw Julie in 1994, when she beat Ned Randall (Michael Cavalieri) of Alpha Elite in a fight that proved she had mastered the martial art. Soon after, Mr. Miyagi himself beat Colonel Paul Dugan (Michael Ironside) in combat, and Alpha Elite left their former leader behind.Much of Julie’s story post-Next Karate Kidwas left open to interpretation, and whatever she ended up doing with her life, we will ultimately never know. Additionally, we don’t know how much she and Mr. Miyagi kept in contact. It’s safe to assume that the pair remained close, consideringthe way Daniel and Miyagi did themselves, but given that she isn’t mentioned onCobra Kai, there’s not much to go on.
The ‘Cobra Kai’ Team Tried To Rope Hilary Swank Into the Show
So, did theCobra Kaiproducers intend to bring Swank’s Julie Pierce back into the narrative? It turns out, they did their best. “[We] never actually spoke directly with her. We wrote letters,” showrunnerJon HurwitztoldDecider. “We had some thoughts in mind as to what we would do to bring her back in.” According to the co-creator,Season 6 would have been the time to bring the character in, particularly as a source of information about Miyagi for Danielas he searches for the truthconcerning his mentor’s “dark secret.”Because she was also a student of Miyagi, the idea would have been to have Daniel reach out to her to inquire further. “So as Daniel is going through the crisis that he’s going through all season about Mr. Miyagi, there was an opportunity for her to be somebody who may have more information about Mr. Miyagi’s past,” Hurwitz continued. “And perhaps bring some wisdom to the Torys and Samanthas of the world as well.”
Unfortunately,Swank turnedCobra Kaidown. “I don’t think I am,“she toldColliderback in February 2024. “It’s, like, the number one question I get right now. Most people usually say, ‘What’s it like working withClint Eastwood?’ But I think, ‘Are you going to be onCobra Kaihas almost surpassed that?'” According to the show’s creators, they never crafted a specific narrative for her. No dialogue was ever written, but they did have ideas about whether she and Daniel would have been in touch after all those years. It’s an interesting conversation, to be sure, and one that fans will only wonder about going forward. AlthoughCobra Kaiis officially over,theKarate Kidbrand is relaunching on the big screen. Perhaps Swank would be more interested in reprising her role for a futureKarate Kidsequel that would be released theatrically rather than revisiting it for a made-for-streaming series…
This Heartbreaking Scene Is What ‘Cobra Kai’ Spent Six Seasons Building Toward
Cobra Kai never dies, but Cobra Kai definitely cries a bit.
Julie Pierce Could Have Helped Daniel During His Miyagi Crisis
However, the idea that Julie would be privy to certain information about Daniel’s former mentor would have been the perfect way to bring herinto theCobra Kainarrative, and it’s a shame it didn’t work out. The show could have kept the character at enough of a distance thatshe wouldn’t have disrupted the natural flow, but also still acknowledged her place in the greater franchise. Even a mention of her in the three-part final season (which would have been easy, especially with the use ofNext Karate Kidflashbacks) would have been better than nothing, but theCobra Kaiwriters ultimately opted against it. It’s too bad though, because even if Julie was not the most beloved Karate Kid out there,she retained a special bond with Miyagi herself that we never got to seemuch of apart from a single motion picture.
Nowadays, Hilary Swank has moved on to much bigger things apart from the early years of her acting career (which included a part in the originalBuffy the Vampire Slayermovie). The actress appeared in films likeMillion Dollar BabyandBoys Don’t Cry, both of which earned her Academy Awards for Best Actress. And while she’s not going to be spotted at the All-Valley any time soon,she is set to appear onYellowjacketsthis season, meaning that television isn’t fully out of her wheelhouse. Whatever reason Swank had for not returning to herNext Karate Kidrole, the truth is that we’re a bit disappointed she never appeared onCobra Kai. For a show that worked so hard to honor the past and update the iconicKarate Kidbrand, they certainly would have done Julie Pierce justice.
Cobra Kaiis available for streaming on Netflix.
