How Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 3 Almost Brought Back The Karate Kid Villain Dutch

This article contains spoilers for "Cobra Kai" Season 6 Part 3.

With each new season of "Cobra Kai," it was difficult to not be in awe of its audacity to bring back all manner of "Karate Kid" alumni. The consistency in which it did so would sink just about any other franchise into empty nostalgic reverence ... and yet, it kind of worked. The only time it ever really fumbled this was with the unsettling AI resurrection of Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). Otherwise, when a returning character like Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) or Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) made an appearance on the show, they became integral parts of the story. Pulling heroes and villains from past films for "Cobra Kai" (like Thomas Ian Griffith's Terry Silver) retroactively made them better and, even more shockingly, meaningful.

In the Season 2 episode "Take a Right," Johnny (William Zabka) receives a call from his high school Cobra Kai buddies Bobby (Ron Thomas) and Jimmy (Tony O'Dell) letting him know that their mutual friend Tommy (Rob Garrison) is on his deathbed. These characters, who spent "The Karate Kid" being little bullies, thusly go on a miniature road trip to laugh and reflect on their lives. It's a thoughtful reunion that gives these characters more humanity than the original 1984 film ever did. There's a fifth Cobra Kai alum, however, that's absent from the get together — namely Dutch, as played by the late Chad McQueen.

In that same episode, the group talks about how Dutch was often sent to juvenile hall and that he currently resides in federal prison. He never made a guest appearance on "Cobra Kai," but there was a chance to bring him back in the show's final season.

In response to an inquiry made during a Q&A prompt on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the fate of Dutch, "Cobra Kai" co-creator Jon Hurwitz revealed that there were initially plans to have him play an important role in the series finale:

"The opening of the final episode was originally supposed to be Johnny visiting Dutch in prison, expecting to be potentially joining him soon because of the Applebees incident. It was basically an alt version of the graveside scene that we actually open the episode with, but with Dutch telling Johnny that there aren't second chances for guys like them. Later in the episode, Dutch would have been watching Johnny's final fight with some fellow inmates — potentially Trey and Cuz — cheering Johnny on. While we would have loved to work with Chad, we are equally happy with the scenes we ended up filming instead."

In addition to being the offspring of screen legend Steve McQueen, Chad McQueen also built a legacy of his own. He starred in a string of B-action movies throughout the '80s and '90s, but ultimately found his passion in the world of racing. Even after his 2006 injury while training for the 24 Hours of Daytona, the younger McQueen never lost his passion, going so far as to start his own family-operated racing enterprise, McQueen Racing, in 2010.

Chad McQueen unfortunately passed away on September 11, 2023, by which point "Cobra Kai" Season 6 had already finished filming. He had expressed interest in working on the show prior to tha. However, given his commitment to the business, in addition to the injuries he sustained throughout his racing career, it seems like it would have been difficult for McQueen to make an appearance. It's a shame we'll never get to see it because even an 11th hour comeback for Dutch would've provided the perfect parallel to Johnny's journey.

A big part of "Cobra Kai" is that it's never too late to admit your mistakes and commit to being a better person. Perhaps most notably, the series spent over five and a half seasons showing Sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) being party to all manner of plotting, backstabbings, and other villainous schemes. But in that final batch of episodes, Kreese finally takes accountability for unleashing his unpacked trauma upon Johnny and his students. And while he wasn't nearly as prominent a character as Kreese, there was plenty of room for something similar with Dutch.

Had Dutch appeared, Johnny would have essentially had to face an alternate version of himself had he continued down the same path of self-destruction as his old friend. In "The Karate Kid," Dutch is shown to be the most temperamental of the Cobra Kai bunch, with the character's unseen actions outside of the film backing that up. Having him see Johnny on TV so many years later in a much better state could have provided hope that Dutch could find his own peace down the line. Of course, focusing on your health and family is more important than fulfilling the will of a fandom, so Chad McQueen's actions are perfectly understandable.

Ultimately, after six seasons of alluding to the Applebees altercation in a humorous light, the show does a good job of reframing this incident in its final episode. From the vantage of the present, we instead come to see the event as a low point in Johnny's life right before everything changed. Similarly, by opening and closing with Johnny visiting his mother's gave at very different times in his life, the "Cobra Kai" series finale does a great job illustrating that Johnny feels like he's overcome everything with someone he was dearly close to growing up.

Every season of "Cobra Kai" is currently streaming on Netflix.