An important karate Kid character has finally made by her Snake Kai debut.
The third season of the dramatic martial arts comedy hit Netflix on Friday, and along with it came the return of a favorite from the Miyagi verse. Ali Mills of Elisabeth Shue, a former love interest of Johnny and Daniel, returned to the Valley to reconnect with her exes, offering a stranger’s perspective and a little wisdom that helped to crush the lingering tension between the two senses.
His return was quite provoked in the second season of the series, which ended with Ali sending Johnny a friend request on Facebook. But in episode 9 of the last race, Shue finally appeared, arriving just in time to unite the former enemies so that they could start preparing for the biggest battle ahead: taking down John Kreese and Cobra Kai once and for all.
Here, TVLine talks to executive producers and co-showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg about how they kept Shue’s appearance a secret, because Season 3 was the perfect time to bring her back and why Ali became “the force that brings Daniel and Johnny together. “
TVLINE | How did you manage to keep Elisabeth’s return in such a closely guarded secret?
CURED | We just threaten everyone! [Laughs] We discussed with all the artists: ‘Don’t post anything on social media, don’t comment with your friends or loved ones. Please keep this secret. ‘ We had [everyone] signing very strict non-disclosure agreements with unspecified consequences – I have no idea what they are – but it was enough to make it work, apparently. We also started with a big warm hug like, ‘Hey, look around and see how special this is. Imagine how special it will be if people find out it’s a surprise. ‘We operate like this with many stories on this show. We are probably boring to work at some level for the marketing department, because we are always asking for the most impactful and sexy moments to be left entirely out of the marketing campaign.
But we went back to that time when there was no internet. You were not bombarded with new clips every day and first photos, and the flood of material that has now become commonplace and necessary to attract an audience in such a fragmented world. We remember going to the cinema and discovering for the first time something that was not in the trailer or commercial, and how magical it was. This is more difficult to do today, but that does not mean that we will not continue trying to do this.
TVLINE | I imagine it was similar to the big reveal at the end of the first season?
CURED | We did this with Kreese in the first season. Martin Kove is one of the great champions of the series, and we love it, but all that first season, there were a lot of therapeutic calls asking 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 it. It will be much bigger. So that was the test balloon, I would say, to keep the secret from Ali.
TVLINE | Have there been any plans to bring it in from the beginning? Why wait until season 3 to reintroduce Ali?
SCHLOSSBERG | We contacted [Shue] somewhere during season 2, after there was a show that she could see. We knew that she knew the program, had seen it and liked it. We had good vibes about the potential of being able to work with her when the time was right. For the fan base that is following this story, the most radical fans, it’s a great time to bring it into history, so we really wanted it to be perfect.
We didn’t know 100 percent whether we were going to get it, because there are all kinds of external factors that can happen. But as soon as 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 was there at the end of the season, and it all worked out the way you expected it to when the time came to close the whole deal.
TVLINE | Using social media in the plot starting in Season 2 seemed like the perfect way to elicit his comeback.
SCHLOSSBERG | From the beginning we loved the idea of playing his character, at first, through the eyes of Johnny looking at his life through social networks. This is something that we feel that many people could identify with when it comes to old flames and friends from the past. We knew that Johnny was interested in her and we loved the idea of him seeing her on Facebook and seeing her life that is apparently perfect. But when you meet her at the end of the season, it’s not all roses. She’s dealing with her own problems, and that was the story we told her that I think she was interested in, and something that a lot of people understand. The grass is always greener when you see someone’s life on social media, and that leads to a lot of comedy, but also some real moments with that person. In the end, of course, it was just poetic to have it as the force that unites Daniel and Johnny at the end of the season.
TVLINE | Let’s talk a little bit about Ali’s effect on Johnny. I love the phrase she says to him: “You have a future to find”, as if she were defending his future. What did he learn from her and why did he need this meeting?
HURWITZ | Johnny’s life has been a mess for a long time. He’s a guy who self-sabotaged himself a few times in his life, so being in this place where he’s starting to connect with a woman and having the anxiety of like, ‘OK, I can get involved with someone in a serious way, [and it’s] the mother of my best karate student / substitute son figure, ‘there’s the typical nervousness. He’s clearly stuck with Ali for all these years, in one way or another, so being able to see her again and get a taste of the past with her, but also from the perspective of adult life, is strong for him not only on the side of his love life, but also in terms of LaRusso and the approach to Daniel.
Her involvement in these scenes with Johnny and Daniel at the country club ends up making these two guys who don’t seem to have a moment to reflect on their own roles and any problems they may have, maybe realize that maybe they are not so different after all. Even though she hasn’t seen them in so many years, just spending a little time with them again and remembering who they were in high school with, she recognizes that maybe she could give them both a little wisdom that can help them move on .
TVLINE | The scene at Golf N ‘Stuff when Johnny and Ali are on the bench outside: Why did you stop before you saw them kissing?
CURED | We went and came back in that almost kiss and got really close to maybe saying it could have been a real kiss. Ultimately, we wanted to preserve that moment on the stairs when she helps Johnny realize that his life makes sense with Carmen in her, and we didn’t want to feel that he needed to have a little flirtation to get there. It was more of an emotional connection [with Ali] than a physicist. That must be the lesson there.
TVLINE | With Snake Kai already renewed for a fourth season, is there any chance of seeing Ali again?
CURED | We will not comment on what our future plans are with anyone who is a legacy character in these films, except to say that we have a long history ahead of us. We always leave the door open for anyone from the Miyagi verse to enter and exit the series.