“Cobra Kai”'s Sean Kanan put off surgery to film Mike Barnes' season 6 return

The actor also reveals the line he added to Barnes' big speech to the Miyagi-Do students.

Warning: This story contains spoilers for Cobra Kai season 6, part 1.

Sean Kanan didn't let a near-death experience while shooting The Karate Kid Part III stop him from playing bad boy Mike Barnes in the '80s. And more than 30 years later, the actor wasn't about to let shoulder surgery keep him from reprising his role for the final season of Netflix's Karate Kid sequel series, Cobra Kai.

"Before I even knew that I was going to come back for season 6, I met with my surgeon," Kanan tells Entertainment Weekly. The actor recalls that during a consultation for a rotator cuff injury, his doctor told him, "Look, if we do this surgery [now], if they call you for season 6, there’s no way you can do [the show]."

Rather than risk losing out on the potential opportunity, Kanan put the surgery off — and then the Big 3 (Cobra Kai creators Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, and Jon Hurwitz) called. "They didn't really tell me a whole lot about what I'd be doing in season 6," Kanan says. But his pre-production conversations with the wardrobe department — which revealed he'd be wearing "this really flashy, cool gi" — helped the actor deduce that he'd be training karate students.

Actually, "training" might be the wrong word. Mike Barnes does, in fact, show up at the Miyagi-Do dojo — but he's there to help Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) choose their team for the Sekai Taikai tournament. Entertainment Weekly spoke to Kanan about Barnes' "baptism by fire" approach, what his character would think about the dirty trick Devon (Oona O'Brien) played on Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young), and whether he'd be up for a Mike Barnes spinoff.

Related: Cobra Kai creators answer spoiler questions, preview 'rocky road' ahead for Miyagi-Do

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It's such a great reveal when Daniel says, "I gotta bad idea" and then we cut right to Mike addressing the Miyagi-Do students. Tell us about shooting that first scene.

SEAN KANAN: Barnes is very much Barnes. But there was one thing that we worked into that speech, and it was a suggestion that I had. I said, "I think it would really give some depth to the character if he realized that he had the opportunity to do what these kids are going to do, and he blew it because of his lack of emotional control." So [the producers] graciously gave me the latitude to put that line in there, that “I blew my chance,” and then look at Daniel. I think that demonstrates the self-awareness and evolution in the character.

Barnes, when he's addressing the students, makes it very clear that this is going to be a baptism by fire for them, for whoever is fortunate enough and strong enough to make it through the tests that he sets up to determine who deserves to go. It’s everything from catching a chicken to fighting to something akin to flag football. He's got some out-of-the-box thinking. There’s a whole really great B storyline that develops between Johnny and Barnes, which was a lot of fun to play.

Related: Cobra Kai season 6 preview: Watch Mike Barnes whip Miyagi-Do into shape

Where do you think Barnes falls when it comes to a style of karate — is he more Miyagi-Do or Cobra Kai?

He is a 10th-degree black belt. He is as good as it gets, and he's a guy that doesn't fold under pressure. He was a national champion, and I think that he's had this sort of epiphany and this reawakening that he's made a lot of transgressions. In my mind, he's absolutely not getting paid to do this for Daniel. This is kind of his way of saying, "I'm going to atone. I can never completely make up for what I did to Daniel, but at least I can do something for him, and I could try and be a positive influence for these kids."

We had this whole discussion about what kind of martial arts Mike chose. Ultimately, what we settled on was my first introduction to martial arts, which was Shotokan, a hard style of Japanese karate. That being said, what Mike studied was not completely dissimilar from Miyagi-Do. I mean, Miyagi-Do is more geared towards defense. Shotokan might be a little more aggressive, but they're both of the family of Japanese and Okinawa and martial arts, opposed to do Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo, which are specifically Korean, and what the foundations of Cobra Kai are. What I studied was very close to what Daniel teaches. When I found out that I was coming back and I was going to be a sensei, I started training privately in Tae Kwon Do. I started training for about six months privately because I wanted to have at least a foundation of what Cobra Kai would've been, so I could have that in my wheelhouse a little bit.

Hopefully this means he's no longer banned from competitive karate. Do you think he's now practicing regularly?

I’ll tell you, for a guy that's been making furniture for years, he did pretty darn well against Chozen after getting sneak attacked [in season 5]. Mike can still handle himself. My guess is that whether he admitted it or not, he kept up with it. Look, if you’re a 10th-degree black belt, it's not something [you forget].

What would Barnes think of how Devon secured her victory over Kenny? Do you think he would say it's cheating — or that a win is a win?

He said anything goes. Look, there is honor in martial arts of course, but there is an aspect of asymmetrical warfare that involves psychology. I think he would applaud that. Look at the subterfuge that Chozen used to insert himself into Terry Silver's life under false pretenses. I mean, that epitomizes asymmetrical warfare.

In that episode, Mike and Johnny have a real throwdown in the wood shop. It was nice to see you guys get to have a full fight scene — what was it like to shoot?

First of all, I absolutely adore Billy Zabka. I met Billy in 1988, so I knew Billy before I had ever even done Karate Kid Part III. He's just a spectacular guy. He has got brilliant comedic sensibilities. I love working with Billy, and I knew it was going to be fun. For me, it was a little challenging because on July 11th I'm having rotator cuff surgery. I've had a longstanding injury. Before I even knew that I was going to come back for season 6, I met with my surgeon and he said, “Look, if we do this surgery [now], if they call you for season six, there’s no way you can do it.”

Oh, so did you put the surgery off to shoot the show?

I put the surgery off.  My concern was, can I get through this fight scene? And I was able to do it, I think, effectively, with the knowledge that when it was done, that was the last big physical thing I was going to do before getting the surgery.

One thing I really like is that Johnny and Mike Barnes absolutely do not dislike each other. There’s a lot of similarities between them. And you even saw in season 5, Johnny says, “The bad boy’s right!” and “I like this guy.”  They haven't made a big deal about it, but Mike Barnes saved Johnny's ass at the end of season 5. This fight that happens between Johnny and Mike — Mike is kind of instigating it because he needs to know that he's still a guy that can throw down if he has to. For him, if he's still able to do it, as he says, it's recapturing his power, so to speak. I mean, we don't know what happened to Mike's wife. She presumably divorced him... He's a guy that really has lost everything, and the one thing that he's at least trying to retain is his sense of his own integrity and relevance. In Mike's mind, it’s, “Hey, if I go up against Johnny Lawrence, then maybe I'm still worth something.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

What was the training like for that scene?

We’re very fortunate that Billy is very adept with his martial arts. And at 57 years old, I guess I can still do a thing or two. We got the choreography, and we didn't have a ton of time. A lot of it was because Billy was working so much. I would go in when I could, I'd work out with the stuntman, I'd work out with the choreographers and everything so that I had my part of it down. It changed several times. It’s funny, I equate that to working on Bold and Beautiful ... because you'll learn your lines and then the night before you get rewrites. So, you're always having to accommodate for new information. And this was really a physical representation of what I'm used to doing mentally with lines from the soap opera. I expected that there were going to be changes.

The biggest thing was to make sure that nobody got hurt. And I did, but that's okay. I took a little fall, but it was no big deal. The big thing was the Billy and I didn't wind up kicking or punching each other, which we didn't. And we work with Don Lee, who is an absolutely spectacular fight choreographer and ensures our safety. I felt like we were in very good hands.

Related: The best Cobra Kai season 5 characters, ranked

Have the Big 3 ever talked to you about a Mike Barnes spinoff?

They have not, but I'll tell you, the fans sure seem to be enthused about that. I mean, I think either some kind of a buddy show with Barnes and Chozen or Barnes and Johnny would be a lot of fun. Listen, I'm a thousand percent game. I would race to work with any of these people anytime, anywhere. It was just so much fun. It really was.

Well, now that we know Mike Barnes is back doing karate, I could see him training impressionable young minds.

I like where your head at! Let's get Netflix on the same page. [Laughs]

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Cobra Kai season 6, part 1 is streaming now on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.