Netflix’s Cobra Kai, created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg as a sequel to The Karate Kid sequels, still had the “The Eye Of The Tiger” with Season 5, which is a coveted status, years after (fittingly) launching as an underdog show on YouTube Red for two seasons. Since the show’s premiere, many franchises have tried and failed to replicate the show’s ability to effectively harness nostalgia while also crane-kicking the generation gap to maintain a rabid and plentiful audience.
The show’s Season 5 streaming success led to speculation about more of this rivalry-filled series and whether we’d see dojos clash again after the fall of spectacular Bond-esque karate villain Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). That batch of episodes actually ended in a way that wouldn’t have been infuriating as a series finale, but fortunately for viewers, Netflix decided to keep going for One Last Fight. Actually, make that “one more fight” for “the biggest season, the baddest season, the final season.”
Now, let’s talk more about what to expect from the upcoming season of Cobra Kai.
Plot
Netflix has kept details of the show’s final season under wraps, but there have been plenty of suggestions on what we could happen. We’ll see if John Kreese will surface in The Valley after escaping prison, whether Hawk can grow his hair back really fast, and if Johnny can succeed at being a non-f*ck-up dad. Following Terry Silver’s crash and burn, what happens to “his” dojo?
“Cobra Kai will never die,” as the motto goes, so it sure seems like we will see Kreese return on some level after being framed and wrongfully convicted. As well, the tidy resolutions of the Season 5 finale will fall part, as star Ralph Macchio predicted to us, due to this being a “karate soap opera.” Macchio also hinted at Daniel LaRusso and the rest of the show taking the globe:
“They’ve set up the international element of it, they’ve set up the master Kim in Korea. They set up Kreese, and they also set up that everything’s going back to normal and they’ve finally succeeded. But in a soap opera, as Cobra Kai is a karate soap opera, when one door closes, there’s always more that will open. There’s certainly room for that.”
Jacob Bertrand, who portrays Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz, was rooting for a world tournament when he spoke to us, too:
“Oh my god… This is my dream, that I somehow am linked up with Kreese, fresh out of prison. We start some illegal ring of some sort, and I go back to the bad side. I’m kidding, but I think it would be so cool if we got a Season 6, and we actually got to go to some crazy world tournament. And actually go to Brazil or something and not like it have it be, ‘Oh we’re in Brazil! But it’s really just a basement studio in Atlanta'”
Cast
Of course Ralph Macchio and William Zabka will return as Daniel and Johnny Lawrence, respectively. Jacob Bertrand will be back as Hawk, along with Mary Mouser as Samantha, Xolo Maridueña as Miguel, Tanner Buchanan as Robby, Peyton List as Tori, Gianni DeCenzo as Demetri, and Dallas Dupree Young as Kenny. Also expect to see Courtney Henggeler as Amanda and Vanessa Rubio as Carmen, both wondering why their partners cannot stop thinking about karate for five damn minutes.
Again, let’s hope for Martin Kove to come back as John Kreese. And will we see Griffin Santopietro return as the dreaded Anthony LaRusso? Maybe he’ll even keep doing things other than eat a popsicle. Fingers crossed!
Release Date
Way back in January 2023, Netflix issued a vague “soon” regarding a release date, and we know how this year has gone in Hollywood. The writers’ room went “pens down” for the corresponding strike, and the actors’ strike followed not too long afterward.
Now that productions are roaring back to life, we can anticipate movement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they released the final season around the 2024 holiday season. Netflix did, after all, prefer the New Year’s Eve/Day release schedule for a few seasons. Hopefully, we’ll see some updates before long.
Trailer
No trailer exists yet, but here’s a teaser to tide viewers over:
Expect more updates on Cobra Kai soon.