Why Actress Nichole Brown's Character Aisha Was Not Seen in COBRA KAI Season 3
This season of Cobra Kai was arguably the best one yet. It included many old characters from the films that we hadn’t seen in years as well as familiar faces from the first two seasons. One character that was missing, however, was Aisha, played by actress Nichole Brown. Aisha was the girl that had grown up with Samantha LaRusso, and had originally joined Cobra Kai to help her defend herself against the bullying she faced at school. Her character was relatable and sweet, and the only mention of her was in passing in episode one when a background character mentioned that her parents had transferred her to a private school after the school fight that took place at the end of Season 2.
Back in September 2019 Brown broke the news that she wouldn’t be in the third season, writing on her Instagram story, “Officially NOT in Season 3 of #CobraKai… Unfortunate, but thank you for the opportunity and time I had on the show.” This doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense as the character was in 19 of the 20 episodes in the first two seasons, and to write her off feels odd, but the only explanation I can think of is that Samantha went through some really tough times this season, dealing with anxiety and PTSD from the fight/attack she endured, and maybe keeping Aisha on this season, we wouldn’t have seen Samantha come back around to her dad and the idea of Miyagi Do karate again.
Co-writer and co-creator of the show Hayden Schlossberg spoke to ComicBook about her departure, saying:
"Well we don't want to get too much into detail about why we do certain things. If it is going to effect things in the future, that would be a spoiler. Except to say, if a character that's one of our favorite characters you've ever created and it's tricky when you're putting this season together and figuring out, what's going to make it, what's not. What we will say is, as you've seen in season three, characters who maybe you thought were no longer a part of the story, do come back and play a role. Just using Tyler as an example. And so, people who want to see Aisha again, I think that's how we would respond to that, without giving anything away."
So it’s a strong possibility that we will see Aisha back again in another season of the show. I sure do hope so. She was a great character, and I’d love to see how she could be worked back into the story.