Since 2018, everyone has been waiting for his return in Cobra Kai!

Please note that the following is a detailed plot of Cobra Kai Season 6 Episode 2 available on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to know anything about its content, I suggest you stop reading this article now.

This is the character everyone was hoping for in Cobra Kai. Although he is not the hero, Kesuke Miyagi – aka Master Miyagi – is undoubtedly the most iconic character in the Karate Kids saga. His performance as translator Pat Morita in the first film of the trilogy earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1985.

Sadly, the American actor passed away on November 24, 2005, thirteen years before Cobra Kai was released. Designed as an official sequel to the Karate Kids movies, this series sees the return of rivals from the first installment, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).

Out of respect for the late actor, he only appeared in scenes using images from the films. Miyagi’s name comes up a lot, especially in this sixth season, when Daniel LaRusso discovers that his former master, the epitome of a righteous man in his eyes, committed a crime in his youth.

The teacher visits his former disciple

Other revelations awaited the new sensei of the Miyagi-do dojo. Investigation allowed the latter to learn that Miyagi had also participated in a Sekai Taikai tournament and had won one of his matches by killing his opponent.

A shock that would forever change the image of a man who advocated defensive karate, and therefore the natural enemy of the Cobra Kai Dojo, which practices more offensive karate.

Shocked by this discovery, Daniel LaRusso was visited by his former master during a restless night. In Nightmare, the latter first appeared as a young version, and then was replaced by the face of Pat Morita, recreated with artificial intelligence and visual effects.

“Obviously, we had to talk it over with Pat’s heirs to let them know and make sure they were comfortable with the idea. We wouldn’t have done it without their approval.” Josh Heald, co-creator of the series, commented TVLine.

“So we went through this whole process, which was important to us and to the studio, and we feel like we really captured this vision that Daniel has, trapped in this nightmare, where there’s a Miyagi like we’ve never seen before.”

to the microphone termAnother series creator, John Hurwitz, returned to the significance of this scene for Ralph Macchio, forty years after the first Karate Kid came out:

“Before Season 6, we sat down with Ralph and discussed what he wanted to see in this final season. The idea of ​​sharing the screen with Pat Morita again was something he really wanted.”

Another character has already been digitally rejuvenated!

This is not the first time that digital rejuvenation techniques (i.e Deep fake) is used in the series. Already in the fifth season, this process was used to bring back a young Johnny Lawrence, which caused fewer legal problems after his translator William Zabka appeared in Cobra Kai and gave his approval for production.

The result of this digital Miyagi is quite convincing and fans are happy that this cameo is used to serve the story. A simple eye-catching look without any context would certainly be poorly received by the public and Pat Morita’s successors, so it was up to the creators to get it right.

And it looks like mission accomplished!

All six seasons of Cobra Kai are now available exclusively on Netflix.

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