Cobra Kai will never die, even if the show is gearing up for only one more season. Will spinoffs be declared at some point? One can only hope. Hawk needs to keep soaring, and several characters, including Samantha, have shown so much karate-fueled growth that it would be a shame for Netflix to not follow up with some sort of sequel series. As well, at least one film is in the works, and everyone onboard has expressed the desire to keep going, so there will be more of “The Eye Of The Tiger” coming in some shape or form, albeit not a Rocky crossover, which is actually excellent news.
The show that has achieved perfect blend of cross-generational appeal and nostalgia and will bring that nearly-unheard-of combination back to the dojo in 2024. Here’s what we can expect:
Plot
Netflix has vowed that Season 6 will be the “the biggest and baddest” season in existence. Can the series possibly live up to that challenge, given that Season 5 continued the largest gathering of baddies from the films in one place? Chozen had decided to come to the bright side along with Johnny Lawrence, who’s been there (albeit with consistent grumbles) for several seasons. Mike Barnes joined up in Season 6, but the most dastardly karate villain of all, Terry Silver, seemingly ended a two-season arc after falling for the crane kick.
How does that happen when that move is so telegraphed in advance? The power of cinema, baby. Yet Season 6 had enough fruit left on the limbs for more. In the below video, the cast gathers for their final preliminary Cobra Kai table read. Demetri actor Gianni DeCenzo reveals that the group must “decide our dojo name,” so it looks like “Eagle Fang” ain’t it?
What of Miyagi-Do? Perhaps that official label is being reserved for the upcoming The Karate Kid movie starring Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan for Sony Pictures Entertainment. On another note, the show left it wide open for John Kreese (Martin Kove) to return after he busted out of prison. Also, I wouldn’t mind seeing him actually be exonerated (of the Stingray beatdown) before he turns into an a-hole again.
Jacob Bertrand (Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz) previously told us that he would (jokingly) enjoy Hawk and Kreese together for “some illegal ring of some sort, and I go back to the bad side.” On a more serious note, Bertrand would love to “go to some crazy world tournament.” That was also the sentiment of Ralph Macchio, so we’ll see whether co-showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald agree:
“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.”
Cast
Expect to see not only Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) but also Mary Mouser (Samantha), Tanner Buchanan (Robby), Dallas Dupree Young (Kenny), Gianni DeCenzo (Demetri), Peyton List (Tory), and more. Yuki Okumoto (Chozen) was not visible during the cast’s table read, but Redditors want him on the scene.
Release Date
On Netflix, the show has stuck with a holiday release schedule when possible (even dropping a few days early before a planned New Year’s Eve release date). Even though those Hollywood strikes happened, this window seems feasible, given that the production has historically come together rather fast, and no special-effects phases will be needed. Via Collider, co-creator Josh Heald revealed that the show was actually ready to film, but some rewrites happened, and filming should begin in January 2024:
“For the three of us who share a hive mind and never stop thinking and talking, [the strike] did give our minds a place to marinate and come back into the writer’s room as soon as the writer’s strike was over with more ideas, more depth in terms of where we were already going. The room is just running on all cylinders right now … we will be back in production after the New Year.”
Trailer
Netflix knows that the wait between seasons has been too long, so they dropped a brief teaser:
Fingers crossed for more Cobra Kai announcements coming your way.
