A ‘Cobra Kai’ Creator Has Revealed The Inspiration For Paul Walter Hauser’s Stingray Character

Golden Globe winner Paul Walter Hauser (you got that right) has plenty on his roster. He’s gearing up to portray Chris Farley in a biopic and picked up an undisclosed role in Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot . These bookings stand in addition to Hauser’s new career offshoot in MMA, for which he actually pulled out a crane kick as well as his version of Bruce Lee’s explosive one-two punch to score his first in-the-ring victory.

Meanwhile, Hauser also found the time for a quick Cobra Kai sixth-season appearance , in which he was a terrible texter but had clearly recovered from being a tool of Terry Silver’s manipulations. The Netflix series recently dropped the first third of the season while the creators are already talking future spin offs , but co-showrunner Jon Hurwitz took a social-media moment to express appreciation for Hauser and reveal how the Stingray character was born.

Of course the role was created with Hauser in mind, and a certain NEON film inspired the genesis of the overgrown man child crashing a dojo:

“I’ll never forget the guys and I watching the movie ‘I, Tonya’ seven years ago and saying to each other ‘We must write a role for that guy on Cobra Kai!’ Stingray was created with Paul’s specific comedic voice in mind. On set, he was immediately beloved — not just because he had us all busting out laughing with his genius improvs — but also because of the kindness he showed each and every person he came in contact with.”

And there you have it. Hurwitz further revealed that “the set was buzzing” on the day that Hauser surfaced on set for the final Cobra Kai season. Additionally, he refers to Stingray’s “final monologue in the woods,” which could be a suggestion that this will be the last that we see of Stingray, and surely, that ain’t so? However, Hurwitz does know what he’s doing when he dropped this: “Who knows? Maybe we’ll have a Stingray movie down the road.” Yes please.

You can read Hurwitz’s full post below:

And here’s a refresher on Hauser’s I, Tonya character, “mastermind” Shawn Eckhardt. This portrayal prompted effortless laughter every time Hauser appeared onscreen. He should be incredible as Chris Farley.