20-year-old Xolo Maridueña, who plays Miguel on Netflix’s smash hit Karate Kid follow up, Cobra Kai, never expected the show to be such a humongous success. The show is entering its fifth season, and he still can’t believe it. 

“It all feels very surreal. Because in the grand scheme of things, it’s happened fairly quickly. Five years is not a lot of time to kind of be at the point that I’m at right now. Sometimes it feels a little overwhelming, for my family especially,” he says in conversation with Teen Vogue. This is only the beginning for the Los Angeles native as he prepares to star in a DC film: Blue Beetle, featuring a Latino superhero. 

“It’s going to touch on a lot of things that haven’t been touched on before in superhero movies…. I haven’t had the chance to put on the suit yet or anything like that. Once it happens, it’ll feel real.”

Xolo takes a dig at Hollywood says: There’s no reason that writers’ rooms today should still be filled with middle-aged white men solely

Hollywood is notorious for stereotyping different ethnicities. Mexicans are always portrayed in a negative light. He explains, “What tends to happen in Hollywood sometimes…the pitfalls that we see, that when you’re Latino in Hollywood, you’re Mexican; and when you’re Asian in Hollywood, you’re Chinese. And that’s really not the case.” Xolo who is of Cuban, Mexican, and Ecuadorian descent is grateful to the creators of Cobra Kai for giving Latinos a proper representation. “I’m grateful our creators were intentional with their choices when it came to finding this character of Miguel.”  

Cobra Kai star’s inspiration is DC’s new batman Robert Pattinson

“He’s inspiring in terms of coming from Twilight and then doing Good Time, The Lighthouse, this new Batman movie — really killer project,” he gushes. 

When asked his own plans, he says, “My goal is to play an antihero — a dark, greedy person that for some reason is doing bad things, but you’re still rooting for him.” The star also expressed his desire to do a cameo in Euphoria. 

Did you love Xolo Maridueña‘s Miguel in Cobra Kai? Are you looking forward to Blue Beetle? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.