No matter what TV you see at CES, chances are it will be tuned to Netflix’s Cobra Kai, which released season three on New Year’s Day. Series star Vanessa Rubio joins Andre Stone and Ariana Escalante to talk about what’s coming up in the show as part of our coverage of CES 2021.
“Whenever you put something new out, there’s a vulnerability,” Rubio says of the releasing the latest season, which is the first season to be streamed on Netflix. So far, she says, the fan reaction has been amazing. “The response has been just phenomenal.” And with the new audience that Netflix brings, many are just discovering the show. “Netflix is the biggest streaming service in the world, and they translate it into 30 languages. So it’s such a wider market. It’s quite remarkable.”
Reaching a much bigger audience isn’t the only thing that has changed since last year. So has the shooting schedule, which has been stopped since the pandemic began. “We’re going to go back into filming,” Rubio says, although the start date is unconfirmed. “I don’t know how much I can share, but we have been greenlit for season four,” she confirms. “All the details are being worked out right now.”
As for her character on the show, what does the current season three hold? “[My character] is so overwhelmed, and there’s so much to deal with,” she says. “But what I’m always excited about with her is when she can move forward in her full capacity — besides being a mother and caretaker to her son, which is the central focus of her life. But when she feels like that’s taken care of, she can move on to other areas. And then toward the end of the season, we get to see her deal with what’s going on with Johnny.”
When asked what retro 1980’s tech she wishes would make a comeback, Rubio answers immediately. “The VCR,” she laughs. “They’re clunky, they take up a lot of space, but there’s something so cool about it!”
Retro tech is fun, but what about when she’s waiting around on set? Rubio says her favorite time-killing apps are “probably Instagram. It’s probably the app I use the most, social media-wise. Twitter I dip into a bit, and then I get a cleanout because if I stay too long I’ll just be too distracted! But I’m a pretty visual person, so Instagram does it for me.”
