Between the exits of Cobra Kai Season 6 parts 1 and 2, the Karate Child The cinema family said goodbye to one of its own. Chad McQueenwho played the role of a member of the Cobra Kai dojo and a bully Dutch in The Karate Kid And The Karate Kid Part II, died in September at the age of 63.

So when Cobra Kai Returning with its latest batch of episodes, the series immediately paid tribute to the late actor. At the end of the first new episode, titled “Benvinguts a Barcelona”, the credits feature a photo of McQueen in character along with the actor’s years of life and the phrase “Cobra Kai Never Dies”.

Netflix

Co-creator Josh Heald told TV Insider that it was a no-brainer for producers to find a way to honor McQueen and his Karate Child character, but they were actually working hard to include both in the series long before he passed away.

“WI love Chad McQueen so much. We were so lucky to have met him and sat down with him, and we explored the possibility of having him on the show several times,” Heald explained. “We tried to succeed in season 2, but the schedules didn’t work out. He couldn’t be there with the rest of the OG Cobras because they were sort of doing their motorcycle ride for the Tommy episode. We tried to think creatively about something again during Season 5, and the production schedule was so unbearable that we asked ourselves again, “How do we bring this into the world?” Because Dutch is a very important character for us.

The answer was to have several mentions of Dutch over the seasons, from Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) recalling his high school adventures that resulted in adult crime and imprisonment.

Heald said he and co-creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg were particularly impressed by the character’s innate depravity in their youth. “When we watched that movie as kids, he was probably the most terrifying person beyond Johnny because he felt like he really wanted to kill Daniel. That night of the Skeleton fight, he’s the one who really encourages everyone to say, “Let’s kill that kid on the fence.” So he was so dynamic and we would have done everything we could to bring him into the universe, in a small way.

Since that never happened, Heald is at least glad he was able to work it into the show by mentioning the character’s name and also honoring the actor. “At least by mentioning Dutch and speaking lovingly about where the character is, Dutch lives on even though Chad has passed away.”

Cobra KaiSeason 6 Part 2, Streaming, Netflix