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

"Barnes makes it very clear that this is going to be a baptism by fire," says Sean Kanan, who reprises his "Karate Kid Part III" role in the final season of "Cobra Kai."

Karate’s Bad Boy is back — and he’s about to put the kids of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang through one hell of a boot camp.

In this exclusive clip from season 6 of Netflix’s Cobra Kai, Karate Kid Part III villain-turned-furniture craftsman Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) reunites with senseis Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). Last time we saw Barnes, he was pilfering a Rembrandt from Cobra Kai big bad Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), who burned down his furniture store in season 5. Now, Barnes is helping Daniel and Johnny select the students will fight for their (as-yet-unnamed) dojo at the prestigious Sekai Taikai tournament.

“Johnny and Daniel are both kind of at loggerheads about what to name the dojo, and who should represent it” at the Sekai Taikai, Kanan tells Entertainment Weekly. “Daniel comes up with the brainstorm that they need somebody who is ostensibly impartial. The big reveal is that Mike Barnes has been brought on” to pick the team. Watch the full clip above.

Related: Cobra Kai's Sean Kanan reveals the insult he really wanted Mike Barnes to hurl at Terry Silver

Kanan, who previously reprised his role in season 5, says he's stayed contact with exec producers Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg since that appearance. “They kept saying, ‘We’re working on the new script. We'd love to see Barnes again,’” he recalls. The Bold and the Beautiful star adds that he was very open about his desire to have Mike Barnes return to Cobra Kai in a sensei-of-sorts capacity. “When I would do interviews and things like that, I kept saying, ‘Who better to train these kids than Mike Barnes, who was a national champion?’” he says. “I was doing my best to plant the seed, and it came to fruition.”

That’s good news for fans, but not-so-great news for Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Sam (Mary Mouser), Tory (Peyton List), Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo), Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), and all the other Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang hopefuls competing for a spot in the Sekai Taikai under Barnes’ watchful (and merciless) eye. “Barnes makes it very clear that this is going to be a baptism by fire for whoever is strong enough to make it through the tests that he sets up,” explains Kanan. “He's got some out-of-the-box thinking.”

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The actor admits that he faced his own test while shooting this scene in Daniel LaRusso’s backyard — but it had nothing to do with executing a flawless front kick. “The biggest challenge of that entire speech was everybody getting on the same page about how to pronounce Sekai Taikai,” he says, laughing. “We all had to go, ‘Okay, how do you actually say this?”

So, what was the verdict? “I was told it was Seh-kai Tie-kai,” says Kanan. “That was the most difficult line to remember.”

Part 1 of Cobra Kai season 6 premieres Thursday, July 18, on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.