Is Hilary Swank Returning for Cobra Kai?

Cobra Kai has been a huge success for Netflix and brought back nearly every actor involved in the Karate Kid franchise. However, with half of its final season out, there’s one person who has yet to return. So, is Hilary Swank returning for the final season of Cobra Kai?

Will Hilary Swank Return to Her Karate Kid Role in Cobra Kai?

The short answer is that no one knows, but it’s becoming less likely. Netflix has now dropped the first two parts of Season 6, ten episodes in total, and Swank is nowhere to be seen. While the ten episodes revealed that Mr. Miyagi kept secretes from Daniel Larusso, including being a Sekai Taikai competitor, there wasn’t a single hint of a reason for Julie Pierce (Swank) to show up in the show. The second third of the season made it even less likely as Daniel Larusso’s quest to uncover Mr. Miyagi’s secrets seemed mostly wrapped up. With only five episodes left, they’ll need to drop a hard pivot for her return to make sense, though the show has done that plenty of times, so it’s still possible.

Ever since Cobra Kai began as a YouTube Red series, fans have been clamoring for Swank to return to her role from the film The Next Karate Kid. In that film, she played Julie Pierce, a new protege of Mr. Miyagi. As the seasons went on and more and more stars from the original three films began returning to the franchise, including villains Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffin) and John Kreese (Martin Kove) and deeper cuts like Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Swank would return as well, but she has yet to. That leaves only five more episodes, including a film-length series finale, releasing next year.

The first and biggest obstacle, though not one that insurmountable for a series that loves crazy plot twists, is that the storyline still hasn’t even hinted at The Next Karate Kid being canon. No one has mentioned Jule Pierce aside from one possible indirect mention, and it’s easy to ignore her character as the film took place in Boston, not LA, and can be seen as a kind of side adventure for Mr. Miyagi. Julie doesn’t even fight in karate tournaments during the film, solely using karate to defend herself. It is very easy for her to simply not be in the story, which, at this point, doesn’t need her to conclude in a satisfying manner.

That, however, doesn’t mean she won’t return, and the show’s showrunners aren’t saying it’s an impossibility. In an interview with Deadline this past December, the show’s showrunners – Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg – would not deny Swank’s return to the franchise, nor would they confirm it. Instead, Hurwitz simply said that they’re fans of Hillary Swank, with Schlossberg adding, “Anyone from the Miyagi-verse could potentially be in the final season.”

Ralph Macchio has done this as well, even going as far as to heavily hint she may come back when the first half of Season 6 dropped. The vagueness of their statements can leave fans hopeful that Jule Pierce may indeed return in some form. There’s also the possibility that she returns briefly to set up a possible spinoff series that the trio is hoping to make.

Finally, there’s one more long-shot chance for her to come back in the upcoming Karate Kid film that features Macchio and Jackie Chan reprising their roles and may or may not be connected to Cobra Kai. That, however, is a very tough sell, as the movie focuses on the Chan-starring Karate Kid film and doesn’t involve the Cobra Kai showrunners in any way.

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Does Hilary Swank Want to Return as Julie Pierce in Cobra Kai?

There’s also the question of whether Swank wants to return to the role. The actress has moved on to bigger and better things in her career, winning two Oscars. While she hasn’t been a headliner in films recently, that would still make her the biggest name on the show by a longshot, making many wonder if she has any interest in returning to a character she hasn’t played since 1994. Thankfully, the actress gets asked about her return to the series a lot, so we know her opinion on it.

Speaking on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2022 while Cobra Kai was in its prime, the actress admitted that she might reprise the role if anyone asked. “I’m not in Cobra Kai, no one’s asked me to be in Cobra Kai,” Swank told the hosts. “A lot of people ask if I’m going to be on it, it’s like, the No. 1 question I get.” She even followed it up when pressed on whether she’d be willing to return, saying, “No one’s called me!”

More recently, as the sixth and final season approached and her chances of returning become more limited, the question has come up even more often, but Swank has become incredibly tight-lipped, dodging it at every turn. In an interview for her now-canceled series Alaska Daily, the actress basically put up a brick wall, saying, “I was told that I’m supposed to only keep it to Alaska Daily, so I guess that question is for another time.”

With all the secrecy, there’s no way to know for sure if the actress will return, but it’s clear she wants to. However, with three-quarters of the final season concluded and no sign of Swank or any storyline that would involve her, it feels less and less likely.

And that’s whether Hillary Swank is returning for Cobra Kai.

The above article was updated on 11/20/2024 by the original author to include information about Cobra Kai Season 6.