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Netflix’s Cobra Kai has had many familiar faces from The Karate Kid franchise return. In the first four seasons, many characters, including John Kreese (Martin Kove), Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), have either become full-time members of the cast or appeared as guests. Many fans wanted to see the return of Mike Barnes in Cobra Kai Season 5, and Sean Kanan urged fans to “bug producers” so he could return.

Mike Barnes is a villain from ‘The Karate Kid: Part III’

Yuji Okumoto as Chozen Toguchi, Sean Kanan as Mike Barnes, Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso in Cobra Kai Season 5
Yuji Okumoto as Chozen Toguchi, Sean Kanan as Mike Barnes, Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso | Netflix

Terry Silver is the main antagonist of The Karate Kid: Part III. However, he gets help from his old friend, Mike Barnes. In the film, Terry hires Mike to defeat Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) in the 1985 All Valley Tournament and offers him 50 percent of his new Cobra Kai dojos. Mike continuously terrorizes Daniel until he is ultimately defeated by Daniel in the tournament. 

In Cobra Kai Season 5, Mike returns as a new man. While Daniel initially believes he’s working with Terry, it turns out mike has turned a new leaf and put the past behind him. He opened a successful furniture store and apologizes to Daniel for what he did in the past. Mike eventually teams up with Daniel and the rest of the team to put Terry’s reign to an end. 

Sean Kanan used fan support to get Mike Barnes in ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5

So many Karate Kid characters have turned up in Cobra Kai, so it was only a matter of time before Mike Barnes returned. However, nothing is guaranteed, and Sean Kanan earnestly wanted to return. In an interview with Men’s Health, Kanan says the producers knew he wanted to be on the series. To push it even further, he utilized the “Cobra Kai army” to urge producers to bring Mike Barnes back. 

“The producers were very aware that I wanted to do this,” Kanan admits. “And I did a lot of that as a way of instigating the fans, because I knew ultimately, if the fans were vocal enough about wanting me to come back, that probably would help. And I figured, look, they’re already bugging me anyway—I might as well motivate them to bug the producers. Other than soap opera fans, hell hath no fury like the Cobra Kai army, let me tell you.”

Kanan was welcomed back to the franchise with open arms

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Kanan says he and Macchio got along perfectly on set despite their on-screen rivalry. In terms of advice for his return, the actor shares that Macchio and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) told him to have fun and just go with the flow. 

“They’re such great guys,” Kanan explains. “They just said, “Listen, we’re so happy to have you. Have fun, enjoy it.” And we just fell right back into it. I felt like we had really good chemistry, and it wasn’t forced. We’re all actors now that are 30, 35 years down the road in our experience as performers, so we’re able to bring a lot of different colors and bags of tricks to the table. It really was a lot of fun working with the guys. It was one of the best work experiences I’ve ever had.”

Cobra Kai Season 5 is streaming on Netflix. 

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