According to Cobra Kai’s founder, the recently announced Karate Kid movie will not be related to the Netflix series. The Karate Kid debuted in theatres in 1984 and quickly established itself as a classic. Two direct sequels, The Karate Kid Part II and The Karate Kid Part III followed in 1986 and 1989, respectively. With the 1994 spin-off film The Next Karate Kid and the 2010 remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, Columbia Pictures, the franchise’s distributors, attempted to maintain the brand.
The franchise was resumed in 2018 with the YouTube Red series Cobra Kai. Popular fan favorites including William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, and Martin Kove reprised their famous roles from the first trilogy in the series, which also featured the introduction of a new group of youthful characters. Cobra Kai was well-liked by viewers and reviewers, and after season 2, Netflix decided to carry the show, which helped it gain more viewers and become one of the streaming service’s most popular programs. While season 6 of Cobra Kai has not yet been officially confirmed, the creative team is optimistic that it will happen. Season 5 of Cobra Kai recently made its Netflix debut on September 9, 2022.
Because of the popularity of the series, many people assumed the recently announced Karate Kid movie, which Sony set for release on June 7, 2024, would somehow relate to Cobra Kai. Jon Hurwitz, one of the Cobra Kai developers, claims that the movie looks to have no relation to the series and that the creators are not at all engaged. Hurwitz did admit that he would one day still like to direct a Cobra Kai movie. Hurwitz tweeted the following:
It’s puzzling that the Karate Kid series would continue, but will not be related to the successful television series that started the phenomenon. Sony indicated that the movie “will return to the classic Karate Kid franchise” when they announced it. It’s unknown at this moment if the future movie will follow Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi in a divergent timeline akin to the new Halloween trilogy, or whether it will simply concentrate on a different cast of characters inside the same Karate Kid universe in a manner akin to The Bourne Legacy.
Similar to Spider-Man and Ghostbusters, Sony seems to be approaching the Karate Kid property in the same way. The Spider-Man movie franchise from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Spider-Verse animated series, and the Spider-Man Universe, an interrelated collection of movies that includes Venom, Morbius, and the impending Kraven the Hunter, are all produced by Sony. A Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel and an animated Ghostbusters film are both under development at the studio, and both will be released in 2023. With Cobra Kai on television and a new film series, Sony now appears to want the Karate Kid brand to live on across other media.
