Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai is an American martial arts comedy drama television series created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. It serves as a sequel to the first three The Karate Kid films created by Robert Mark Kamen. Cobra Kai premiered on May 2, 2018, and concluded on February 13, 2025, after six seasons consisting of 65 episodes. Originally released on YouTube Red / YouTube Premium for its first two seasons, the series later moved to Netflix.

Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, reprising their respective roles as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence from the film series, star in Cobra Kai alongside Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Peyton List, Vanessa Rubio, and Dallas Dupree Young. Martin Kove and Thomas Ian Griffith also reprise their roles as the antagonists John Kreese and Terry Silver from the original film series. Cobra Kai re-examines The Karate Kid films as Johnny's "redemption story" that questions his role as a villain, and also introduces the struggles that both Daniel and Johnny face with their respective father figures.

Cobra Kai attained high viewership on both YouTube and Netflix, and received critical acclaim for its writing, performances, action sequences, humor, character development, and faithfulness to the films. It received numerous awards and nominations, with the third season being nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.

Premise

Beginning in 2017, thirty-three years after being defeated by Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament at the end of The Karate Kid (1984), Johnny Lawrence suffers from alcoholism and depression. He is impoverished and living in an apartment in Reseda, Los Angeles, having fallen far from his wealthy lifestyle in Encino. He also has a son named Robby, but the two are estranged due to Lawrence's neglect as a parent. In contrast, Daniel is now the wealthy owner of a car dealership chain - "Larusso Auto Group" - and is married to co-owner Amanda with whom he has two children: Sam and Anthony. However, Daniel often struggles to meaningfully connect with his children especially after his friend and mentor Mr. Miyagi died prior to the series' beginning.

After using karate to defend his teenage neighbor Miguel Diaz from a group of high school bullies, Johnny re-opens Cobra Kai to train the young man in self-defense. The revived dojo attracts a group of bullied social outcasts who find camaraderie and self-confidence under Johnny's tutelage. The reopening of Cobra Kai rekindles Johnny's old rivalry with Daniel, who subsequently responds by opening the Miyagi-do dojo with Sam and Robby, leading to a rivalry between the respective dojos.

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Guest

Archival footage

The following characters only appear via archival footage from the film series:

Episodes

Production

Prior pop culture works

There were a few works of popular culture prior to Cobra Kai that explored different readings of the first Karate Kid film. In 2007, the music video for the song "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings stars William Zabka (who also directed the video) as a caricature of himself as Johnny Lawrence, and features references to The Karate Kid (1984), including cameo appearances by Zabka's former co-stars. In a 2010 interview, Zabka jokingly discussed this video in the context of his vision that Johnny was the true hero of the film.

Next in June 2010, Ralph Macchio appeared in Funny or Die's online short, "Wax On, F*ck Off", in which his loved ones stage an intervention to turn the former child star from a well-adjusted family man into an addict besieged with tabloid scandal in order to help his career (with frequent references to The Karate Kid). A recurring joke in the sketch is that Macchio is confused for an adolescent. The short was lauded by TV Guide's Bruce Fretts, who referred to the video as "sidesplitting" and "comic gold".

Finally, in 2013, Macchio and Zabka made guest appearances as themselves in the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Bro Mitzvah", where Macchio is invited to Barney Stinson's bachelor party, leading to Barney shouting that he hates Macchio and that Johnny was the real hero of The Karate Kid. Towards the end of the episode, a clown in the party wipes off his makeup and reveals himself as Zabka. Zabka continued to be a recurring character throughout the ninth season of the show. The creators of Cobra Kai commented on this episode stating that they "appreciate the parallel fandoms that this show has, whether it's the How I Met Your Mother storyline -- which was amazing -- we get asked all the time about that YouTube video if Daniel was the real bully...all that stuff just kind of buoyed us a little bit when we were conceiving the show and comparing the storylines to pitch the show because it made us feel confident that we weren't the only ones, and we didn't think we were, but it was nice to see other creators have Karate Kid on the mind."

Development

Pitch

The creators pitched the series in 2017 to outlets that included Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and AMC, using a mock trailer created with footage from prior works by Macchio and Zabka. The show was ultimately greenlit in August 2017 by the subscription service YouTube Red (later YouTube Premium). Executive producers James Lassiter and Caleeb Pinkett of Overbrook Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television joined the Cobra Kai creators.

Season releases

The first and second seasons launched on YouTube Red / YouTube Premium in May 2018 and April 2019. The creators of the series explored moving to another platform ahead of the season two premiere, but the deal did not go through. The third season was produced for YouTube and was initially set for a 2020 release, but in May 2020, the series left YouTube and moved to Netflix ahead of its third-season premiere. As YouTube was not interested in renewing the series for a fourth season, the producers wanted to find a streaming venue that would leave that option open. The show moved to Netflix in June 2020, taking the third season with them.

The third, fourth, and fifth seasons were released in January 2021, December 2021, and September 2022, respectively. A fourth season was renewed, prior to season three being released, and was released on December 31, 2021. The fifth season premiered on September 9, 2022. Production for the sixth and final season stopped during the period of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike and 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and resumed after January 1, 2024. Season six was divided into three parts, each consisting of five episodes: part one was released on July 18, 2024, part two was released on November 15, 2024, and part three was released on February 13, 2025.

Casting

General

As the "Miyagi-verse" that shapes Cobra Kai consists of characters who interacted with Mr. Miyagi, the series offers a deeper exploration of themes and characters from The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986), and The Karate Kid Part III (1989). All of the main actors, and a few supporting actors, reprise their original roles. With regard to The Karate Kid animated children's show (1989), Hurwitz has stated that he doesn't consider it to be part of the Miyagi-verse canon, but an Easter egg from it appears in season three, in response to the question about its status within Cobra Kai.

In addition, throughout Cobra Kai's run, there was speculation that Hilary Swank might reprise the role of Julie Pierce from The Next Karate Kid (1994). According to Heald, they had a storyline involving Julie related to Mr. Miyagi and the mystery of a stolen necklace, "but before we got too deep, we had to reach out to Hilary and find out would she be willing to come and play with us." At the end of the series in 2025, Heald, Hurwitz, and Scholssberg stated that Swank would not appear as, "people have all sorts of reasons why they will or will not be participating in something, and with the timing of whatever was going on, it just was never an option." However, they also indicated that they will "have to see what might happen in this universe if we're fortunate enough to continue writing within it. She's a character that we have a lot of excitement to revisit."

Seasons

In season one, Macchio and Zabka reprised their respective roles of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny. Additional The Karate Kid actors included Randee Heller as Daniel's mother Lucille LaRusso, and Martin Kove as John Kreese. The cast list for season one included Xolo Maridueña as Miguel Diaz, Mary Mouser as Daniel's daughter Samantha "Sam" LaRusso, Tanner Buchanan as Johnny's son Robby Keene, and Courtney Henggeler as Daniel's wife Amanda. Ed Asner was cast in a guest role as Johnny's wealthy, verbally abusive step-father, Sid Weinberg. Vanessa Rubio joined the cast as Miguel's mother Carmen.