The Chad McQueen Tribute Explained

Divided into three parts, “Cobra Kai” season 6 brings the best “Karate Kid” project to date to a conclusion — though not necessarily the end, given the creators’ stated desire to set up a spin-off centered on beloved “Karate Kid” sensei Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita, with Brian Takahashi playing the character’s younger iteration in “Cobra Kai”). The show is known for honoring its past in general and the actors from the original “Karate Kid” movie trilogy in particular, and the final season is no exception. The first episode of “Cobra Kai” season 6 part 2, titled “Benvinguts a Barcelona,” features a touching tribute for Chad McQueen, who plays Johnny Lawrence’s (William Zabka) fellow Cobra Kai student Dutch in “The Karate Kid” (1984) and its 1986 sequel, “The Karate Kid II.”

McQueen died on September 11, 2024 at age 63, while “Benvinguts a Barcelona” was released just two months later on November 15. That means that the show paid tribute to the actor the first chance it got with a credits card showing an image of McQueen’s character with the actor’s name, years of birth and death, and the time-honored slogan: “Cobra Kai never dies.”  

Chad McQueen’s Dutch is one of the few notable characters from the first three “The Karate Kid” movies who doesn’t appear in the present-day timeline of “Cobra Kai.” When his old Cobra Kai friend group of Johnny, Bobby (Ron Thomas), Jimmy (Tony O’Dell), and Tommy (Rob Garrison) reunite in the season 2 episode “Take a Right,” we find out this is because Dutch is in prison. Series co-creator Josh Heald told TV Line in 2024 that there were numerous attempts to bring Dutch back in the mix, however:

“We love Chad McQueen so much. We were so fortunate to have met him and sat down with him, and we explored many times the possibility of bringing him onto the show. We tried to pull it off in season 2, and the schedules didn’t work out. He wasn’t able to be there with the rest of the OG Cobras as they kind of had their motorcycle ride for the Tommy episode. We tried again creatively thinking about something during season 5, and the production schedule was just so unbearable that we looked again into, ‘How can we bring him into this world?’ Because Dutch is such an important character to us.”

As it stands, McQueen’s Dutch receives his “Cobra Kai” laurels solely through flashbacks and anecdotes. Tragically enough, the actor isn’t the only member of the original Cobra Kai crew who’s received a credits tribute either. The reason the gang gets back together in season 2 is Tommy, who’s dealing with a serious illness and passes away before the episode’s end. Unfortunately, Rob Garrison himself died in 2019 at just 59, and received a tribute card much like McQueen’s in the “Cobra Kai” season 3 opener, “Aftermath.”