Cobra Kai Season 5: Terry Silver's New Sensei Exhibits 'Darker Side' Of Dojo's Origins — 5 Things You Need To Know

What's more unsettling than an evil dojo turning innocent kids into merciless fighting machines? How about a Cobra Kai location on every corner of the valley? (Sounds like Daniel LaRusso is going to have his hands full!)

When Cobra Kai returns for Season 5 (all 10 episodes will be released Friday, Sept. 9), Terry Silver, who usurped control of the dojo after double-crossing John Kreese, is expanding his empire. With Kreese behind bars and Johnny setting karate (temporarily) aside, Daniel calls on an old friend for help — former adversary Chozen Toguchi (again played by Karate Kid Part II's Yuji Okumoto). But unbeknownst to the good guys, Silver's calling in some backup of his own, and his new sensei's lineage "factors prominently into the beginnings of what Cobra Kai has become," says co-creator and co-showrunner Josh Heald. (More on that below.)

Despite Miyagi-Do having officially closed for good (or has it?), Daniel remains dead-set on stopping Silver in his tracks, and the stakes have never been higher. In Season 5, Daniel's obsession will lead him further into the snake pit than ever before, putting his health and his family's wellbeing on the line. And though Johnny has other priorities to contend with at the start of the season, he's not out of this fight just yet. In TVLine's exclusive photo above, Johnny's back in action and ready to rumble with another of Cobra Kai's new additions, Sensei Hyan-Woo (Kickin' It's Jake Huang) — and it's a showdown you won't want to miss.

To get a taste of what's coming down the pike for the Miyagi-verse, TVLine spoke to co-creators and executive producers Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Heald to get the scoop on the new players, returning faces and big changes that are in store for the dojos come Sept. 9. Scroll down for five things you need to know about Cobra Kai Season 5, then let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Daniel may have recruited Chozen to lend him a hand fist in the fight for the valley, but Silver's calling in some backup of his own. Enter Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim), a no-nonsense martial artist from South Korea brought in to help accelerate Silver's plans. And she has a major connection to an important, though previously unseen character from the Miyagi-verse. Heald explains: "Kim Da-Eun's grandfather was Master Kim. As we know from the Karate Kid franchise and from Cobra Kai, Master Kim is somebody who factors prominently into the beginnings of what Cobra Kai has become."

Kim Sun-Yung taught Captain Turner his ruthless techniques during the war, and Turner thereby passed the teachings down to Kreese and Silver. Needless to say, Kim Da-Eun will surely be another thorn in Daniel and Johnny's sides.

"We're leaning into that lineage to explore the darker side of where Cobra Kai comes from," Heald adds. "Kim Da-Eun is a direct descendent of that karate, and somebody who has lived with that original recipe of what Cobra Kai is. [She'll] definitely add some flavor to the dojo."

Kreese may have landed himself in prison thanks to Terry Silver's clever scheming, but that doesn't mean he's out of the game just yet. Come Season 5, he'll not only be making moves to work the system from the inside, but he'll also find a way to influence what's happening beyond his jail cell.

"Sensei Kreese is a force to be reckoned with," Heald tells TVLine. "At the end of Season 4, we see Silver get the best of him and use a very John Kreese-style sneak attack to take him down. It was well-planned, well-coordinated and Kreese never saw it coming. But if you know anything about Kreese from the movies or from the series thus far, it's that he should never be underestimated. I wouldn't expect him to take this sitting down."

When we last saw Sean Kanan's Mike Barnes in The Karate Kid Part III, Silver used him as a weapon against Daniel, promising the vicious fighter a 50 percent stake in Cobra Kai should Barnes defeat Daniel in the tournament. Daniel, of course, won out by the film's end, but not before taking some serious abuse all at the hands of Barnes. But just what role will the former nemesis play in the show's universe?

"Everyone knows him as karate's bad boy," says Hurwitz. "He was in cahoots with Terry Silver in the past. The question remains: Have they stayed in touch? Is he somebody that Terry can call upon again? All we can say at this point is that he has a very meaningful role in the season that has an impact on everybody."

It's no secret that Robby and Miguel have been through the wringer, with their past traumas and the goings-on at Cobra Kai always putting them at odds. But this time around, the two students will have no other option but to face their baggage.

"Season 5 starts where Season 4 ends, with both Robby and Miguel having gone through a lot, and coming out of the end of an emotional rollercoaster," says Schlossberg. "Both of them still have unfinished business, and at the same time, they have their own personal issues with their love lives and mentor situations. So, they have their own things to work out in order to work things out with each other. Naturally, when they see each other, it's not going to be a fun experience because they have a dramatic past to deal with. But they will deal with it in Season 5, and you'll get to see how that all works out."

The kids' rivalries aren't the only drama coming your way in Season 5. Johnny's family issues are about to collide in major ways, as his search for Miguel in Mexico begins on the heels of his reconciliation with Robby.

"He's juggling his biological son and his sort of surrogate son," says Hurwitz. "Since the beginning of the series, Johnny has been trying to be a better man. When we met him in Episode 1, he was a bit of a loner who hated even dealing with other people. Through his experience with Miguel, he was able to start to open up his heart in a bigger way. He's been on this quest to be a great sensei and also to repair the relationship he had with Robby in the past. He's been on this path opening himself up since his past trauma and starting to find family. Season 5 will allow him to lean further into finding family... and perhaps there will be some twists involved in the whole equation."