Cobra Kai: Fan-Favorite Character Makes Surprising Return in Season 6 Premiere

Paul Walter Hauser’s Stingray finds his way back to Cobra Kai in the final season.

July 18, 2024, 6:47pm

Season 6 is promising some big swings.

The beginning of the end of Cobra Kai has finally arrived on Netflix. Thursday saw the premiere of the first part of the , which has been split into three, five-episode batches. It may only be a third of the whole season, but this new wave of Cobra Kai episodes delivers plenty of action and surprises for fans, including the unexpected return of a beloved character in the Season premiere. WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 6! Continue reading at your own risk…

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In the first episode of Season 6, Johnny gets a message from a hidden number asking him to meet him out in the woods, where he used to train Cobra Kai. All signs point to John Kreese, the show’s big villain who escaped prison and is looking for revenge on Johnny and Daniel. Johnny did find someone in the woods trying to revive Cobra Kai, but it wasn’t Kreese, it was an old student.

Stingray, the fan-favorite, older-than-the-rest karate student played by Emmy-winner Paul Walter Hauser, appeared to Johnny with a whole new batch of students. He had been trying to start Cobra Kai again, this time with an even younger group of kids. His proposition to Johnny is to have his former sensei come back to work alongside him, so that they can together raise up a new crop of karate competitors.

Paul Walter Hauser as Stingray on Cobra Kai

While he caught Johnny at a conflicting time, with some tension swirling between him and Daniel over the direction of Miyagi-Do, Johnny doesn’t take Stingray up on his offer.

Stingray, unfortunately, doesn’t appear in any of the other Cobra Kai episodes that were released in this first part of Season 6, so the couple scenes out in the woods are all fans get of Hauser’s popular character. That said, there are 10 episodes remaining in the season, so more Stingray can’t be ruled out, though the story of the season doesn’t exactly play into his narrative.

The wait for the next five episodes of Cobra Kai Season 6 won’t be short, but it’ll be a lot less time than the gap between seasons. Part 2 was initially set to premiere on November 28th. This week, just ahead of the Part 1 premiere, Netflix announced that Part 2 had moved up a couple of weeks and would debut on November 15th.