Mike Barnes Would Love A ‘Cobra Kai’ Spinoff At Netflix: Here’s Our Pitch

Rumors continue to circulate about a potential Cobra Kai spin-off, and with the return of Mike Barnes, it’s another character to consider. Sean Kanan, the actor behind Mike Barnes, recently spoke about Cobra Kai in an online interview and was enthusiastic about the idea of a spin-off. Here’s our pitch for a Mike Barnes Cobra Kai spin-off.

As a reminder, Part 2 of the final season of Cobra Kai will be available on Netflix in November 2024, with the final batch of episodes set to drop in 2025.

Who is Mike Barnes? The story so far

Mike Barnes, aka the bad boy of Karate, was introduced to audiences in 1989 in the third installment of The Karate Kid. A rival of Daniel LaRusso, Mike Barnes was a national karate champion and a student of Terry Silver, whom his sensei hired to make Daniel’s life a living hell.

Reckless, dangerous, and fighting without honor, Mike Barnes was even more formidable than Johnny Lawrence and dangerous than Chozen. However, Daniel overcame adversity and defeated Barnes in the 1985 All-Valley Championship.

After his showdown with Daniel, Barnes was banned from competing in Karate, ruining his financial future. It wasn’t until he was taken under the wing of his future father-in-law that Barnes would rebuild his life, settle down, and run a furniture store. However, his life went up in flames after Terry Silver was behind his furniture store’s burning down.

As a former competitor in a Sekai Takai, Mike returned to help Daniel and Johnny decide which students from Miyagi-Do would compete in the Sekai Takai.

In an interview clip, Sean Kanan, aka “the Bad Boy of Karate” Mike Barnes. Here’s what he had to say about returning to the role of Mike Barnes 35 years The Karate Kid 3, Cobra Kai’s popularity, and spin-offs:

“Sean: It’s incredible. You don’t get a chance to reprise a character from 35 years ago and have another bite at the apple. It’s 35 years later for me as a person and as an actor. There are new things that obviously that I can bring to it that maybe weren’t there when I first played the role all those years ago. And it’s great to reconnect with, Ralph Macchio and Billy Zabka and all those guys. It was really something special.

I think that there’s like a timeless message in it, you know. I mean, it’s the same deal when you watch the final fights of Rocky. You still get that feeling in your stomach. You’re rooting for the underdog. And I think Karate Kid has that. Cobra Kai is such a great twist that the big three of the creators put on this, that maybe Daniel was the bully and Johnny was the one getting bullied.

you’ve got a whole new generation of kids that love it, plus their parents that love it for the nostalgic purposes. It brings everyone together. And you’re right, it’s like become this international juggernaut.

I’m hearing a lot of talk about spinoffs, though, from Cobra Kai. So that could be kind of interesting.

Interviewer: You would want to see a spinoff.

Sean: Yeah! I think it’d be fantastic”

We took inspiration from Sean Kanan’s answer and wrote a pitch for a Mike Barnes spin-off.

A Mike Barnes Spin-Off

A former national champion and former rival of Mike Barnes, the “Bad Boy of Karate” was recruited by Terry Silver in The Karate Kid 3 to make Daniel LaRusso’s life a nightmare.

After his actions resulted in a life-long ban from Karate, Barnes began working at a furniture store, where he was taken under the owner’s wing. He later married the owner’s daughter and took over the furniture store after his father-in-law’s death. However, the furniture store was burnt down thanks to Terry Silver, resulting in Mike Barnes returning to the Valley and becoming involved in the conflict against Cobra Kai.

In the final season, Mike assisted the students of Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang, helping to choose the six participants who would attend the Sekai Takai.

Since his reintroduction, Mike Barnes has been nothing like his teenage self, but when the blood gets pumping, there are still flashes of the old Mike Barnes inside.

The Pitch

Our pitch for a Mike Barnes spin-off would involve the former bad boy of Karate continuing to rebuild his life after Terry Silver’s actions destroyed it for a second time. As seen in the sixth season, Mike is currently using a warehouse as his base for rebuilding the furniture store and is still reconciling with his wife, who left him after the destruction of the family store. Inspired by the actions of the students and sensei of Miyagi Do, Mike Barnes has never been more determined to get his life back together.

Having learned Miyagi-Do techniques from Daniel, he begins to implement the teachings of Miyagi-Do into his own life and training. One night, while asleep in the warehouse, an unknown assailant wearing a mask attempts to break in and steal some of the equipment, but Barnes, awakened by the noise, springs into action and stops them, but not without them putting up a fight first. After unmasking his assailant, to Barnes’ surprise, they’re just a kid (a teenager). Caught off guard, the assailant gets away. However, Barnes realizes his wedding ring is missing and assumes it has been stolen; however, he doesn’t realize that in the fight, it fell on the floor and rolled underneath the workshop bench (We won’t learn this until later and are left to assume that it has been stolen).

Barnes goes in search of the kid but to no avail. He can’t find anyone who looks like the kid who broke into the shop. Later that evening, while running to clear his head, he happens across a fight. It’s a four-on-one fight, but just before Barnes can intervene, the kid being beaten up finds a way to get back into the fight, inevitably still getting their ass handed to them. Barnes races over to stop the kid from coming under any more harm, but as he helps them up, he realizes they are the same person who robbed him. After a comedic chase scene, Barnes outwits them, apprehends them, and asks for his wedding ring back. 

The kid denies having the ring in their possession, and Barnes, naturally, doesn’t believe them. After criticizing the kid, we quickly learn that they are an orphan and currently in the system, being passed around from foster home to foster home because of their bad behavior. Due to the kid’s attitude, he is instantly reminded of how he was at their age. Feeling some empathy for their situation, Mike offers the kid a deal: come and work for him at the shop after school in exchange for Mike not calling the police. After some reluctance, the kid agrees.

It’s a tough start for the pair. The kid is constantly late, has a bad attitude, and does not respond well to criticism, even when it’s constructive. Barnes, at his wit’s end, is almost prepared to call it quits on helping the kid out. To help cool off, he practices karate before they arrive. However, this is also a ploy from Barnes, who realized the kid would stand by the crack in the door and watch him practice. 

Eventually, to Barnes’s surprise, the kid arrives early one day and strikes up the courage to ask him about what he’s been practicing before they arrive. It’s here that their true journey starts as Barnes steps into the shoes of a sensei and begins to teach the kid the basics of karate.

Besides a brief stint as a sensei of Miyagi-Do, Barnes is still relatively new to being a sensei and is less than perfect. Barnes sees a lot of himself in the kid and vows to be a better sensei than Terry Silver ever was to him while also hoping that the kid will avoid making the same mistakes as he did.

Flashbacks

Throughout the series, we’d see flashbacks to Mike Barnes’ life, including learning karate for the first time, becoming karate champion, and being taught by Terry Silver.

We’d also see the aftermath of The Karate Kid 3, with Barnes banned from competing in karate before eventually being taken under the wing of his father-in-law and learning how to make furniture.

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Would you like to see a spin-off of Cobra Kai centered around Mike Barnes? Let us know in the comments below!