‘Next Karate Kid’ Star Hillary Swank Addresses Potential ‘Cobra Kai’ Appearance

Cobra Kai Season 5 was released on Netflix earlier this month and features cameo appearances from Karate Kid alums Sean Kanan and Robyn Lively who both were featured in The Karate Kid Part III. And while the series has not been renewed for Season 6 yet, fans are wondering if an appearance from The Next Karate Kid alum Hilary Swank is coming soon. Swank recently appeared at a TCA event for her new show Alaska Daily and was asked about having a role in Cobra Kai. 

“I was told that I’m supposed to only keep it to Alaska Daily, so I guess that question is for another time,” Swank said, per Deadline. The Next Karate Kid was released in 1994 and Swank played Julie Pierce, a troubled teenager who is bullied at school. Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) spends time mentoring Julie via request from her grandmother who is old friends with him. Jullie becomes trained in karate and takes down Alpha Elite, which is a JROTC-style program. The Next Karate Kid was not a critical or commercial success, receiving a 7% score on Rotten Tomatoes and earning just $15 million at the box office worldwide. 

Earlier this year, Fandom spoke to the Cobra Kai creators about Swank being part of the show. “All we can say about her is we love Hilary Swank,” co-creator and executive producer Jon Hurwitz said. “We think she’s a phenomenal actress and we love her character in this franchise. She was taught by Mr. Miyagi and she’s somebody who is important to the Karate Kid universe. We can’t say if she’ll return, we can’t say how she’d return if she was going to return.”

Hurwitz continued: “We can say that we talk about her and maybe we’ve met her, maybe we’ve worked with her, maybe we haven’t. “We can’t tell you anything! It’s gonna continue to be a question until either she shows up or the series ends and we welcome the question every time!” Cobra Kai Season 5 is a huge hit for Netflix as it has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and is No. 1 on the streaming service’s top 10 charts. The show first premiered in 2018, and the first two seasons were streamed on YouTube.