Cobra Kaimay have closed its doors last month, but that doesn’t mean the story is quite over yet for theKarate Kidfranchise. As well as this year’s movie,Karate Kid: Legends, there have been several teases forpossible spinoffs fromCobra Kaiitself. While fans wait for more news about that, the series’ showrunner, Jon Hurwitz, has shared an exclusive look at where theCobra Kaijourney started by revealing the fake trailer for the show that was created to sell the show to YouTube.
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Posting the video on X/Twitter, Hurwitz revealed details of the “daunting” prospect of trying explainwhy the world needed a new Karate Kid seriesseven years after the 2010 reboot movie and decades after the last Ralph Macchio-starring movie. He said:
“In 2017, we had the daunting task of trying to explain to buyers in Hollywood what we envisioned Cobra Kai to look and feel like. Sure, we had a detailed pitch and Ralph Macchio and William Zabka joining us in pitch meetings, but the tone of our show was going to be so specific that we wanted to do our best to show streamers how they could potentially sell the overall story and vibe of Cobra Kai.
Without actually filming the show, our task was near impossible and it was never going to be perfect, but with the help of our incredibly talented editor friend @JeffYorkes, we cobbled together footage from Ralph and Billy’s prior work, mixed it was other images that helped tell our story, and threw Thunderstruck under it. We showed this sizzle in all of our pitch meetings to set the tone. But now for the very first time right, I’m sending it to the internet!”
Obviously, getting a show green-lit is a time-consuming and long process, and Hurwitz hinted thatCobra Kaiwas touted around several different streamers – including Netflix – before it was eventually picked up by YouTube.
“We had different versions of this sizzle tailored for each buyer we went to. This one mentions Netflix, but when we were meeting at YouTube, it said YouTube. Hulu it said Hulu. And so on.”
Eventually, the series did find a home on Netflix when it moved from YouTube Red, and continued to deliver several impressive seasons before finally reaching a conclusion in Season 6. It seems, though, there was one thing from the trailer that Hurwitz had to wait until that final season to be able to pay off, despite the continued success of the series.
“We became absolutely obsessed with Thunderstruck from watching this trailer over and over again and always wanted to have it on the show. But it was so expensive, we couldn’t afford it. Instead, we had Johnny mention it in passing as a meta nod when he wanted to advertise the dojo in S2. When making S6, we were determined to finally use the song when Johnny and Miguel took back Cobra Kai, so we saved money in other areas of our budget to make it happen. I’m so glad we did!”
Now,Cobra Kai’s story has reached a mostly satisfactory conclusion, and all eyes are now turning to the future of theKarate Kidfranchise and this May’s release ofKarate Kid: Legends, which will bring back Ralph Macchio along with Jackie Chan from the 2010 reboot. The new movie will arrive in theaters on July 14, 2025, as a new chapter of theKarate Kidfranchise.
Thirty four years after events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a now successful Daniel LaRusso.
