Picture: Sony Pictures
Over the past six seasons of Cobra Kai, we’ve been treated to many cameos from those original movies that defined many of our childhoods. With the final five episodes of Cobra Kai arriving on Netflix tomorrow, many fans were holding out for one of the last remaining holdouts: Hillary Swank. According to a new interview with the trio of showrunners, she won’t return.
Throughout its run, Cobra Kai has often called upon names from the original trilogy of movies. Elisabeth Shue returned as Ali Mills; Rob Garrison came back as Tommy, Traci Toguchi came back as Luna, and let’s not forget Randee Heller came back as Daniel’s mother (Lucille LaRusso) multiple times. It always felt special when major cameos happened, but there was one big cameo that fans hoped would come in these final 15 episodes.
When interviewed on the red carpet for the outlet Entertainment Tonight, Ralph Macchio kept hopes alive earlier this year. When asked about whether there are more cameos to come, Macchio said, “I can’t mention names, but there might be one or two. Or some have shown up in a smaller capacity [in previous seasons] that we’d like to see in a larger capacity.” Ash Crossan, the interviewer, mentioned Swank in particular as one cameo she’d like to see, to which Macchio replied, “Who doesn’t? That’s the one piece that would be interesting – you never know.”
Well, it appears that the stars didn’t align. RollingStone today confirms that while they tried to get Swank to reprise her role as Pierce, it didn’t happen.
Per the outlet, a storyline would’ve seen LaRusso discovering more of Miyagi’s past, which would’ve involved a stolen necklace, which would have led him to Pierce. Co-showrunner Josh Heald said, “We started gaming things out in the writer’s room, but before we got too deep, we had to reach out to Hilary and find out would she be willing to come and play with us,” adding, “We didn’t want to paint ourselves into a corner if she didn’t want to do it. We never got so deep that we wrote dialogue for her. We didn’t have any cards on the wall.”
The showrunners said they were excited about what Julie Pierce had been up to over the years and whether she’d been in touch with Daniel before. While Cobra Kai is done, Heald concluded, “We’ll have to see what might happen in this universe if we’re fortunate enough to continue writing within it. She’s a character that we have a lot of excitement to revisit.”
We’re told that reviews for the final batch of episodes are embargoed for tomorrow. Speaking to a few people who have watched the final episodes, they all say that it is an excellent ending to the series, although they add that it’s the best time to conclude not to overstay its welcome. A bittersweet ending, one person told us.
In case you missed it yesterday, we revealed the runtime for the final batch of episodes, which is 213 minutes long. In the coming days, expect lots more interviews for that final season.
Are you disappointed they couldn’t get Hilary Swank to come back for the final season of Cobra Kai? Let us know in the comments.
Rating: TV-14
