Since the onset of the pandemic, and subsequent quarantine it has resulted in, the demand for on-demand streaming content has seemingly been at an all time high this year. Since the beginning of the year Netflix has released an abundance of original content to meet this surge in demand, resulting in viral hit series’ such as Tiger King: Murder, Mystery and Mayhem and Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, neither of which could have seemingly come at a better time. As quarantine has extended itself in 2021 with the number of COVID-19 cases rapidly climbing nationwide once again, Netflix does not appear to be slowing down with a slew of content already set to hit the platform next month to kickstart the year, including the reprisal of a series which has already seen a considerable amount of fanfare and success. Though not technically a Netflix original, the streaming behemoth acquired the rights this past June to debut season 3 of Cobra Kai, spin-off series to the 1980’s The Karate Kid films, set to premiere on January 8th.
What has seemingly kept fans so intrigued with Cobra Kai is the fact that the series is not just a spinoff of the classic 80’s films, but also a continuation of the original Karate Kid films. With the first film of the series hitting silver screens in 1984, the series picks up over 30 years in the future with Ralph Macchio reprising his role as the original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso. This is something that Cobra Kai creators and producers have been able to utilize much to their advantage, with a number of actors returning to reprise their original roles while also building upon plotlines from the original series of films. In line with this, season 3 of Cobra Kai is set to center around the storyline of 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II with LaRusso returning to Japan where he will once again cross paths with his former nemesis Chozen Toguchi, being reprised by the 1986 film’s original actor Yuji Okumoto. This and much, much more is highlighted in the upcoming trailer for the third season, which was released by Netflix last week and can be seen below, and is sure to leave fans eager for January 8th.
Though the first two seasons of the series premiered on YouTube Premium in 2018 and 2019, the series was seemingly such a hit amongst fans it required a larger platform for its upcoming third season. Critics have been equally as supportive as fans of the series in its first two seasons, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a rather impressive 94% “fresh” rating. Thus, it has made the migration over to Netflix to debut its third season, where it will debut to a much larger audience than previous seasons and will likely bring even more attention to the budding series. While Cobra Kai has already generated a considerable fanbase for itself, catering to fans of the original franchise while also introducing a whole new set of fans to the Karate Kid series, this shift is only likely to grow said fanbase even larger as the series premieres on the forefront of the world’s largest on-demand video streaming service. Though this is not the first attempt in recent history to revisit the series, with a 2010 reboot film starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan generating nearly $400 million across box offices around the globe, Cobra Kai appears to be the most promising, and is set to build upon the success of the first two seasons in just a few weeks.
