‘Cobra Kai’ Star Griffin Santopietro Talks ‘Exciting’ Character Arch in Last Two Seasons (Exclusive)

Griffin Santopietro is enjoying his role on Cobra Kai. After not appearing in multiple episodes over the first three seasons, the 16-year-old actor is playing a more significant role in the Netflix series as Anthony LaRusso, the son of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Santopietro talked about the growth of Anthony over the last five seasons. 

“I’ve really, really enjoyed it,” Santopietro exclusively told PopCulture. “I mean, to get to see that he’s more than what we saw him as in seasons one to three was really, really exciting. I was so happy that we were able to do that. And it’s really interesting. I’m really excited to see where he goes in future seasons with Kenny [Dallas Dupree Young] and everything.”

In Season 4 of Cobra Kai, Anthony bullies Kenny, leading to him joining the Cobra Kai dojo. But as Kenny continued to buy into the teachings of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and John Kreese (Martin Kove), he gained more confidence and began bullying Anthony, who doesn’t know karate like his sister Samantha (Mary Mouser). In Season 5, Anthony continues to be bullied by Kenny but begins to learn karate and becomes a key player in the season finale. 

Santopietro also discussed working closely with Young over the last two seasons. “I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of fun. I mean, we’ve grown pretty closest friends. So to see how that can help us play these characters has been really fun. And to switch from me being the bully to him, being the bully and switch the victims was actually really interesting. And I think we both had a lot of fun with it, and I really want us to do more in the next season together.”

Season 5 of Cobra Kai is still No. 1 on Netflix’s top 10 charts and has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The season has its share of great scenes, and Santopietro revealed the scene that stands out for him. “It’s probably a toss-up between the egg scene and the dojo because that was just my second time doing a dojo scene, but it was the first time being there with everyone,” he revealed. “And it was really great. And then the finale too was really fun just because it was everybody, it was everybody just hanging out for a week. But I think that one had a little more stress than the egg scene. So I’m going to go with the egg scene on that one.”