The actress opens up to ET about joining the Emmy-nominated Netflix series. Plus, watch an exclusive clip of her introduction.
As Cobra Kai has teased, the battle for the soul of the Valley may be over, but the war is just beginning. And when the Emmy-nominated series returns with season 5, audiences will finally get to see how Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) plans to expand his empire and make his “No Mercy” style of karate the only way of fighting.
In doing so, he recruits Kim Da-Eun, played by Alicia Hannah-Kim. “Kim Da-Eun is the first female sensei of the Karate Kid universe,” the Minx actress says, describing her character “as being incredibly powerful, dangerous and mysterious.” Not only that but “she has her own, very particular fighting style. Her physicality is different from everybody else in the universe.”
While speaking to ET about how Da-Eun is going to shake things up on the series, Netflix also shared an exclusive preview of her character’s introduction in season 5 as she’s just getting off the plane to meet up with Silver. And it’s within those first moments, Da-Eun points out she’s not here for the money that Silver has offered her to join his dojo.
Although there’s a mutual alliance between Silver and Da-Eun, with the two “very much aligned and sharing the Cobra Kai philosophy to martial arts,” Hannah-Kim teases that her character is “not someone that’s at the beck and call of anybody else.”
The actress adds, “How she gets enmeshed into this ongoing feud in the Valley is something that viewers will find out throughout the season,” with everyone eventually learning what her true motivations are, especially as “everything that you know about Cobra Kai is about to be turned upside down.”
According to Hannah-Kim, “this season is incredibly emotional. It’s a roller coaster and there are these new elements that are introduced into the season that are going to take it to really exciting places.”
While fans will have to wait and see what’s to come from the new sensei, the actress can’t stress enough how much she was excited to join the Karate Kid universe with season 5 of Cobra Kai.
“It’s such an honor for me and a privilege to be in that universe, especially to inhabit the shoes of the first female sensei. It’s really, hugely meaningful for me on a personal level, not only to represent women but specifically Asian women,” Hannah-Kim says.
“It was just a dream and I’m very, very thankful, specifically to our creators, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, because they really took care of my character and really collaborated with me, especially on her origins, which are mysterious but also global. So, it was definitely interesting to build the character with them.”
She adds, “I hope the fans will embrace her.”
Cobra Kai season 5 premieres Friday, Sept. 9 on Netflix.
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