Cobra Kai

Co-showrunner Josh Heald says there’s more to the Karate Kid sequel series than simply nostalgia: “We’re giving the audience what they expect, but it’s not just ‘Hey, remember this? Let’s go do this again’ ”

Co-showrunner Josh Heald says there’s more to the Karate Kid sequel series than simply nostalgia: “We’re giving the audience what they expect, but it’s not just ‘Hey, remember this? Let’s go do this again.’ ”

When you bring a multidecade story about the British monarchy to Netflix, perhaps you have visions of Emmys dancing in your head, but it’s doubtful that creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg had the same expectations when they brought their sequel to The Karate Kid to fledgling streamer YouTube Red.

Cobra Kai did earn strong reviews and helped put YouTube Red on the map, but it wasn’t enough to keep the platform in the streaming scripted game, so the Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reunion moved to Netflix. Suddenly, Cobra Kai went from cult favorite to mainstream smash — and suddenly the show went from unexpectedly admired to Emmy nominee for outstanding comedy series. Heald recently spoke with THR about the expanded recognition, future nomination hopes for his stars and what proudly uncouth sensei Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) would make of Ted Lasso.

To be clear, Cobra Kai had been nominated for stunt Emmys in consecutive years, so it already was an Emmynominated show, but did you go into Emmy-nomination morning this time around with a different set of expectations or a different set of hopes?

We went into Emmy-nomination morning without expectations that we would get nominated for best comedy series. First of all, our show is a mix of so many genres. We are up for consideration as a comedy by virtue of our half-hourish running time. And there’s plenty of comedy in the show, but it’s not a standard comedy, so it’s hard for us to look at the landscape of other comedies and come in with expectations of “We should be exalted because this is the funniest thing in the world.” We are three comedy writers who are doing something that is the least joke-driven writing experience yet for us.

We really were watching the nominations hoping that there were some breakthrough nominations in other categories. We’re thrilled our sound department got a couple of big ones because, man, do they do a lot of work. And our stunt team. We were thrilled every year that they got recognized because they go through quite a bit to put what they put on the screen, and working with the actors, and getting into a place where it looks pretty seamless and pretty impressive given time constraints, budget, production schedule and everything else.

But we’ve never had a chip on our shoulders of like, “They’re never going to nominate us, and we’re the best show in the world.” We went into that morning with eyes wide open and always hoping that you get someone giving you a pat on the back and saying, “Hey, well done.” It’s all meaningful to us that the show is connecting and landing with people.

It feels like the next step after the series nomination is to get your stars on that shortlist. What’s it going to take, do you think, for Billy Zabka and Ralph Macchio in season four and beyond to be in that conversation in future years?

We asked a lot of everybody in the cast, but this show from its inception, from

Mary Mouser with her onscreen dad, Ralph Macchio, in Netflix’s Cobra Kai.

Heald