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On Cobra Kai, John Kreese (Martin Kove) is no laughing matter. He was the villain of The Karate Kid and two of its sequels, and he’s still training a new generation of bullies. For Kove, Kreese is just a character. Kove is a perfectly affable and humorous guy. In the upcoming Cobra Kai Season 5, Kove hints at a lighter side of Kreese.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 4]

John Kreese (Martin Kove) holds up the trophy and prepares for Cobra Kai Season 5
Martin Kove | Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix

Kove now hosts his own podcast, Kicking It with the Koves, with his son Jesse and daughter Rachel. On the April 6 episode of their podcast, Martin and Rachel revealed that Cobra Kai Season 5 will let Kreese get silly. 

‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5 finds John Kreese in a serious state 

If you saw the season 4 finale of Cobra Kai, it doesn’t look like Kreese will be in a laughing mood. Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) made moves to oust Kreese from the Cobra Kai dojo, and even framed him for assault. The season finale saw police take Kreese out of Silver’s house. 

Silver beat up Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser) and made a deal with him. If Stingray named Kreese as his attacker, Silver would let him back into Cobra Kai. Kreese had made a deal with the devil when he brought Silver back, and now his bill is coming due. 

‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5 will let John Kreese and Martin Kove show humor 

Neither Martin nor Rachel Kove were going to spoil any of Cobra Kai Season 5. However, they hinted that tonally, the show would take advantage of Martin’s comedic chops as well as his Karate chops. Kove had fun on Dancing with the Stars before Cobra Kai Season 4 aired.

“We can’t talk about some of the episodes coming up,” Martin said on Kicking It with the Koves. “I won’t talk about it. They’re silly and funny and emotional.”

Cobra Kai is billed as a comedy on Netflix. The show takes the character drama between Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) seriously. However, both they and their students can be funny in how seriously they take it. Rachel Kove said Cobra Kai Season 5 episodes will let Kreese in on the fun. 

“They’re just really silly and funny,” Rachel said.

All the characters get deeper

Cobra Kai fleshed out Kreese as it did all the characters. We’ve learned that Kreese was living in a homeless shelter, and flashbacks showed his experience in Vietnam. It’s only fair that Cobra Kai Season 5 introduce some levity.

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“I think as the episodes go on, they explore the characters so well, even the staff writers, that they just go,” Martin said. “They write more versatile activity for the characters in the scenes.”

Martin acknowledged the development of the new, young characters, too. Tory (Peyton List), Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), Samantha (Mary Mouser), Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), and Demetri (Gianni DiCenzo) continue showing deeper sides of themselves, too. Martin joked that there’s too much competition.

“I wish there wasn’t so many coming in all the time,” Martin said. “It’s interesting because when they write, they write so well. I’ve always been selfish about that. I want more. I remember when I did Cagney & Lacey I wanted more. The show wasn’t called Cagney & Lacey & Isbeki, which was my character’s name. It was called Cagney & Lacey and the producer would have to remind me of that all the time.”

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