Fans of Cobra Kai will probably be just as confused as everyone else on this one. It seems the just-announced new Karate Kid film won’t be related to Cobra Kai in any way. Despite the major success of the Netflix show, the upcoming film is doing its own thing. We don’t know too much of the plot details at the moment, just that the movie will be “The return of the original Karate Kid franchise.”
So let’s unpack that just a little bit. What could that actually mean? The story of Cobra Kai and the fact that it brings back Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence really makes it sound like it should have already done that. You could only get closer to “the return of the original” if you brought Mr. Miyagi in again to train a new kid who’s getting bullied … And they already tried that, in The Next Karate Kid. (Plus, Mr. Miyagi actor Pat Morita passed away in 2005.)
Maybe, in that case, it’ll introduce a Mr. Miyagi-like character as they teach a new protagonist about martial arts… but that more or less just sounds like a reboot. It seems the only proper way to bring the franchise back is to go in the direction Cobra Kai followed. Cobra Kai is a success story for Netflix, showing that they don’t always cancel their good shows after one season.
One of the creators of Cobra Kai, John Hurwitz, was recently asked if he knew anything about the new film on Twitter. He claimed that he really didn’t know much at all about the new movie. He also said that neither he nor any of his cast members were involved. He was kind enough to wish the series good luck though.
Maybe this whole thing will begin to make some more sense as we get closer to the release of the film itself, but for now, everyone’s pretty much left in the dark. Hopefully soon, we hear a little bit more about the cast, or at the very least some of the creative team attached to the film.
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