Warning: Spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 6: Part 1 follow.
The sixth season of Cobra Kai is being released in three chapters, and Netflix has now debuted Part 1, consisting of episodes 1-5. Naturally, there’s a cliffhanger ending, setting up Part 2, as the (mostly) united forces of Miyagi-Do get ready for their biggest tournament yet, the Sekai Taikai - only to see some familiar faces and logos staring them down on the other side of the mat, proving once more that Cobra Kai truly never dies.
In the midst of these new episodes, we also were given some intriguing information about a crucial character in Cobra Kai / Karate Kid lore, Mr. Miyagi. And while at a glance this might all seem to be completely new additions to the mythology, one specific element is in fact taken from an eye-raising part of the franchise, 1994’s The Next Karate Kid. Up until now, the fourth Karate Kid installment has stood out as the only “Miyagi-verse” movie that Cobra Kai, with its frequent callbacks, references, and character returns, has never directly touched upon. But what Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) has just learned now opens the door to that film in a big way. And it feels like it could also be finally setting up a long-awaited appearance by Hilary Swank, who played the Next Karate Kid in question, as she (literally) kicked off a career that has now garnered her two Academy Awards.
A Tale of Two Miyagis
During the new episodes, Daniel discovers a trunk Miyagi had hidden underneath the floorboards at his home, containing many artifacts relating to portions of Miyagi’s life that Daniel was completely unfamiliar with. One thing that immediately stands out is a passport showing a picture of Mr. Miyagi, but stating his name is Keisuke Miyagi, which Daniel notes is incorrect.
More casual Karate Kid fans may have a natural follow-up question, which is, wait a second, what the hell is Mr. Miyagi’s actual first name? That’s understandable, since no name is ever said out loud in the original trilogy, with Daniel only ever calling him “Mr.” as a prefix. However, 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II, which delved into Miyagi’s upbringing in Okinawa, did give him a full name, albeit really just as a bit of set dressing seen on a sign in Japanese text - Nariyoshi Miyagi. It’s this name that is seen on his tombstone during the times Daniel has visited Miyagi’s grave in Cobra Kai.
However, in 1994, in The Next Karate Kid, which Daniel was completely absent from, Mr. Miyagi’s first name was said out loud - except it wasn’t Nariyoshi. It was… Keisuke! That’s right, that’s where Cobra Kai’s alternate name comes from. 30 years ago, this was almost certainly just a good old-fashioned continuity error made by filmmakers who simply weren’t aware of the easy-to-miss use of Nariyoshi in Karate Kid II. However, this error did create an opportunity that is now being made use of.
Back in 2020, one of Cobra Kai’s creators, Jon Hurwitz, was asked in an interview about the Miyagi name discrepancies, and how they decided what would go on the tombstone. At the time, Hurwitz explained that he and his co-creators, Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg, felt that, between The Karate Kid Part II and The Next Karate Kid, they “viewed Karate Kid II as more meaningful in the canon, in terms of it was the return of Okinawa.” However, he added, “It’s possible that his name is Nariyoshi Kesuke Miyagi and all of the names are relevant in one way or another.”
Now, four years later, the name is indeed turning out to be relevant, though not simply as a middle name but as a separate identity Miyagi used.
The Keisuke Identity
In retrospect, what stands out about the name Keisuke in The Next Karate Kid is when and where it’s used, at a ceremony Miyagi attends commemorating the 442nd Infantry Regiment he fought with in World War II. Now that we know this name is (canon-wise, not the one he was born with) it makes it all the more notable it was the name he used as a United States soldier and that all of his friends and colleagues at the time knew him as. The evidence Daniel finds in Cobra Kai, including an article naming Keisuke Miyagi as the assailant in a 1947 assault and robbery, indicate he continued to use that false name, at least for a while, after the war ended.
Of course, this doesn’t explain why he changed his name in the first place, along with falsifying the year he was born to 1918. (amusingly, Daniel states Miyagi was actually born in 1924, which is itself yet another continuity error, since his tombstone says 1925. But that one at least is easier to explain away as Daniel misremembering in the moment).
There are other major questions too thanks to that trunk, including why the hell Miyagi assaulted and robbed a man named Jim Watkins. The fact that he took a necklace from the mysterious Mr. Watkins stands out – there has to be some significance to that piece of jewelry. And then, on top of everything else, Daniel finds the bloodstained headband that indicates Miyagi himself once fought in the Sekai Taikai. Is this where Miyagi ended up after he fled America in 1947? And did his time in that tournament somehow result in him giving up the false name Keisuke and eventually returning to the US under his real name, Nariyoshi - even while those he knew in World War II still knew him as Keisuke?
Could We Finally See Hilary Swank in Cobra Kai?
This revelation about Miyagi could certainly be pretty self-contained - just a fun way to both acknowledge and explain away a prior continuity error and to at least include some nod to The Next Karate Kid within Cobra Kai. But there are more reasons to suspect that this may also be laying the groundwork to finally have Hilary Swank appear on the series as Julie Pierce.
Miyagi going to Boston for that ceremony in Next Karate Kid is what directly leads him to first meet Julie and take her on as his next student. Julie is the granddaughter of his World War II war buddy, Jack Pierce, and Miyagi was still close with Jack’s widow, Louisa. This is a family who has always known him as Keisuke Miyagi, going back decades, and it feels as though Julie might be able to offer some insight to Daniel into this other identity Miyagi had.
Julie has always been a big question mark when it comes to Cobra Kai, not just because she’s never appeared on the show, but because she’s never even been mentioned, even as so many other elements from the past have. It’s not even clear if Daniel knows she exists and if so, what their relationship is. Perhaps he’s heard about her but they’ve never met? Or did they meet once or twice – such as at Miyagi’s funeral – and that’s it? Or, are they actually quite close and he simply hasn’t had a reason to bring her up?
Taking things even further down this karate-fueled rabbit hole, if Julie was at Miyagi’s funeral, she would have seen that the name on his tombstone didn’t match what she had always known him as. Why wouldn’t she say something? Was this a secret she had some awareness of already but felt she needed to protect? All of these questions make it feel like bringing Julie into the story at this point would make a lot of sense, on top of the innate fan satisfaction of simply finally getting to see Mr. Miyagi’s two students together.
…But this is Cobra Kai, so Daniel and Julie also would fight each other too, right? Come on, they gotta!
The Han Factor
Lastly, it’s worth noting we already know the immediate follow-up to Cobra Kai’s conclusion will be a new Karate Kid movie in 2026, in which Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han – from the 2010 Karate Kid reboot film – will both appear. Which is why it stands out that inside Miyagi’s trunk, there is also a coin from China, the setting for Karate Kid 2010 and the birthplace of Han.
It certainly feels likely that China is where Miyagi’s Sekai Taikai tournament was. And, knowing that movie is coming, it also feels as though pieces are coming together to connect Han to Miyagi’s history, whether by making him a blood relative (a son he never knew about feels very viable) or via some other relationship Miyagi had dating back to the Sekai Taikai. This would obviously give Daniel a reason to seek Han out and create some connective tissue from Cobra Kai into the new film.
We’ll see if this begins to come together when Cobra Kai Season 6 returns with Part 2 on November 15, 2024, and Part 3 scheduled for sometime early in 2025.
