A big Karate kind character has eventually made her Cobra Kai debut.
Season 3 of the martial arts drama hits Netflix on Friday, and with it comes the return of a Miyagi verse favorite. Elisabeth Shue’s Ali Mills, a former love interest of both Johnny and Daniel’s, returned to the Valley to reconnect with her ex, offering an outsider’s perspective and a bit of wisdom that helps ease the tension between the two senses. wear.
Her return was highly teased in the second season of the series, which ended with Ali sending Johnny a friend request on Facebook. But in Episode 9 of the latest series, Shue finally appears and arrives just in time to unite the former nemeses so they can start preparing for the bigger battle ahead: John Kreese and Cobra Kai take off once and for all.
Here, TVLine talks to executive producers and co-fans Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg about how they retained Shue’s appearance mother, why Season 3 was the perfect time to bring her back and why Ali ‘became the force that Daniel and Johnny together. ‘
TVLINE | How could you keep the return of Elisabeth so secret?
HEALTH | We all threatened! [Laughs] We talked to all the artists: ‘Do not post anything on social media, do not comment on your friends or loved ones. Keep this secret. ‘ We have [everyone] sign fairly strict non-disclosure agreements with unspecified consequences – I do not know what they were – but it was apparently enough that it worked. We also just led with a big warm hug like, ‘Hey, look around and see how special it is. Imagine how special it would be if people could discover it as a surprise. ‘We work like that with a lot of storylines in this show. We are probably annoying to work with the marketing department on a certain level because we always ask that the most beautiful and sexiest moments should stay completely out of the marketing campaign.
But we start back to the time when there was no internet. You are not bombarded every day with new tracks and first look at photos, and the avalanche of material that has now become commonplace and necessary to attract an audience in such a fragmented world. We remember going to the movie for the first time and discovering something that was not in the trailer or commercial, and how magical it was. It’s harder to catch up with these days, but that does not mean we will not try to do it.
TVLINE | I would imagine it was similar to the big unveiling of season 1?
HEALTH | We did it in the first season with Kreese. Martin Kove is one of the biggest champions of the show, and we love it, but the whole first season there were a lot of therapeutic calls to ask him to please say nothing. The moment it is discovered, it will be an explosion, and you will be able to talk about it forever, because people will want to. It will be just so much bigger. So it was the test balloon to keep the secret with Ali.
TVLINE | Were there ever any plans to get her started? Why wait until season 3 to introduce Ali again?
SCHLOSSBERG | We reached out to [Shue] somewhere during Season 2, after there was a show she could see. We knew she was aware of the program, and saw it and liked it. We had good vibes about the potential to be able to work with her if the time was right. For the fanbase who follows this story, the hardcore fans, it’s such a great moment to bring her into the story, so we really wanted it to be perfect.
We did not know 100 percent if we would get her, because there could be all sorts of external factors. But once we got the green light to do Season 3, it was one of the first things we discussed with Sony and our cast. We really wanted to make sure she would be there by the end of the season, and everything worked out as you would hope if it was time to finish the whole thing.
TVLINE | Using social media in the storyline starting in Season 2 was the perfect way to tease her return.
SCHLOSSBERG | We loved the idea of playing her character from the beginning, initially through the eyes of Johnny looking at her life through social media. This is something we feel many people can relate to old flames and friends from the past. We knew Johnny was interested in her, and we loved the idea of him seeing her on Facebook and seeing her seemingly perfect life. But if you meet her at the end of the season, it’s not all roses. She’s dealing with her own issues, and that was the story we told her in which I think she’s interested, and something related to a lot of people. The grass is always greener when you see someone’s life on social media, and that leads to a lot of comedy, but also a few moments with them. In the end, of course, it was only poetic that she was the force that brings Daniel and Johnny together at the end of the season.
TVLINE | Let’s talk a little bit about Ali’s effect on Johnny. I like the line when she says to him, ‘You have a future to find,’ as if she is advocating his future. What did he learn from her and why did he need that reunion?
HURWITZ | Johnny’s life has been a mess for so long. He’s a man who has sometimes sabotaged himself in his life, so to be in this place where he starts making contact with a woman and wants the anxiety, like, ‘OK, I can touch someone in a serious way become involved, [and it’s] the mother of my best karate student / surrogate boy figure, ‘there is the typical unrest. He has clearly been hanging on to Ali somehow all these years, so to be able to see her again and taste a bit of the past with her, but also a perspective on adult life, is not only for him strong not only the side of his love life, but also in terms of LaRusso and the approach with Daniel.
Her involvement in the scenes with Johnny and Daniel at the outdoor club causes these two guys who seemingly cannot reflect for a moment on their own roles and whatever problems they may have, to realize that they may not be like that otherwise train. Although she had not seen them for so many years, but just needed to spend some time with them again and remember who they were in high school, she realized that maybe she could both give them some wisdom. which can help them move forward.
TVLINE | The scene at Golf N ‘Stuff when Johnny and Ali are out on the bench: Why did you not kiss anymore?
HEALTH | We went back and forth about the almost kiss and we came very close to saying it could be a real kiss. Finally, we wanted to preserve the moment on the stairs when she helps Johnny realize that his life makes sense with Carmen in it, and we did not want to feel that he had to have some time to get there. It was more of an emotional connection [with Ali] as a physical one. It should be the takeaway there.
TVLINE | With Cobra Kai which has already been renewed for a fourth season, is there a chance we will see Ali again?
HEALTH | We do not want to comment on what our future plans are with someone who is a legacy of these films, other than to say that we have a long story left to tell. We always leave the door wide open for everyone from the Miyagi verse to get in and out of the series.