Cobra Kai co-creator Josh Heald discusses Kreese’s potential road to redemption. In the eventful Cobra Kai season 5 ending, Kreese (Martin Kove) appeared to be stabbed and left in a pool of blood during a prison fight. As viewers anticipated all season long, the fight and the blood were all faked to help the character successfully stage his escape from behind bars and seek his revenge after a betrayal from Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith).

During Screen Rant‘s visit to the set of Cobra Kai season 6, which debuts its first five episodes on Netflix as of July 18, co-creator Heald spoke in-depth about Kreese’s potential redemption. Heald, who created the Karate Kid spinoff with Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, offered insight into how the character is written and reflected on why Kreese turning a new leaf might not be so simple:

Josh Heald: Kreese is such a fun character to play with, because it’s like playing with a bomb. [Laughs] It’s like, “I’ll just tinker here and see what happens,” and it starts ticking at times, and you’re like, “No, no, no, shut down.” So, it’s fun to bring Kreese to the brink of redemption in season 5, to have him go on that spirit journey and to have him lean into his younger self, and to kind of be haunted by the ghosts of the past, and to seemingly hit this point of absolute laying bare his soul. And then, you realize that it’s all one more game from a guy who is looking for revenge. But the fact that he’s capable of even exploring the idea of his own redemption or his own regret, even while being manipulative, should give you just at least a hint of the the colors that we like to play with that character. The idea of Kreese’s redemption, and is that possible, is he a tragic character, or is he a tragic character who’s capable of one last good turn is something that you’ll have to wait and see how we handle that in season 6. But it’s something that we’ve been thinking about for a long time and how to bring that character in for a landing either way, because when you game that out, both ways are very satisfying, and it really is a choose your own adventure.

When we were writing season 5, we got to a place fairly quickly of we want to act like we’re in a Kreese-less world for a minute, and not bring him back into the story until a certain point. So, it became the idea that Silver had imprisoned him at the end of season 4, and it felt like, “Oh my god, okay, we want to spend time dealing with the monster that is Terry Silver before you turn the camera again and reveal that Kreese is there.” So, once we started thinking about, “Okay, when he comes back in, where are we going?,” we wanted to take him on that journey of, “Is prison going to be bad for him? Is it actually going to be good for him? No, he’s going to figure out how to game this system and make friends with the right bad guys and get himself out of there.” And there were moments where you could see that if Johnny had just accepted love in the moment where Johnny and Daniel come to visit him, maybe that was a moment that Kreese could have redemption. But Johnny and Daniel kind of lean in against him there, and it was this final affront to all that is Kreese, and that hardened him. From that point on, he figured out, “I’m gonna get out of here, I’m gonna burn this whole g—amn valley down.” [Chuckles]

Kreese Has A Path To Redemption

It Might Be Interesting If Cobra Kai Avoids It

One of the biggest aspects that Cobra Kai explores is the path to redemption that the co-creators describe. The series was initially premised on flipping the Cobra Kai movies, showing Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to be more of an antagonist while highlighting the more sympathetic side of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). It’s since been complicated further, doubling down on the fact that nearly everyone in the universe has shades of grey.

That includes Kreese. Even as the Emmy-nominated series has stopped short of turning Kreese into a full-on hero, Cobra Kai has spent a relatively significant amount of time on Kreese’s backstory and his history with Terry Silver. That will come in handy in the show’s final episodes, as Kreese could potentially saddle up with his former enemies to bring down a larger foe.

But even if that does happen, it could be good to resist the temptation to fully redeem Kreese. In spite of the character’s sympathetic history, and despite his fatherly bond with Tory (Peyton List), it might say a lot if the series’ frequent villain can’t just suddenly turn his back on the person he’s become, even though he may not be all bad. Among all of Cobra Kai‘s characters, Kreese may be the one to watch out for in season 6.