“Cobra Kai” will be returning for a fourth season at the end of this year, continuing the nostalgia train nearly 40 years after the original “Karate Kid” movie debuted.
As part of their global fan event Tudum, Netflix debuted an exclusive first look at season four of the hit show, centered around the iconic All Valley Karate Championship.
William Zabka and Ralph Macchio return as their classic characters (and executive producers of the show) — Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso — this time as allies after teaming up during season three against one common enemy: Cobra Kai. That squad includes John Kreese (Martin Kove) — who took control of the dojo — and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), the original owner.
The dramatic sneak peek showed Johnny and Daniel working together to train their students and prepare them for the upcoming championship, albeit through their own unique training styles.
The third season of the streaming hit picked up where season two left off after a school brawl broke out between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, leaving Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) — Johnny’s protégé — in a coma caused by his son — Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) — who is Daniel’s student.
Along with the aftermath of the brawl, Johnny’s former sensei, John, betrays him and takes control of the Cobra Kai dojo along with its former students.
“He was betrayed by his father figure again, and now (Kreese has) stolen everything,” Zabka told TODAY. “There's a lot of love in Johnny's heart for all these kids. … He feels he has to kind of rescue these kids if he can, but he's got so much baggage that it gets in his way.”
Kove, however, explained in a separate interview with TODAY that taking the dojo away was the “last thing” his character wanted to do, explaining, “You got to understand that Johnny Lawrence is his son that he never had and his best student ever. And he didn't return to remove Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai; he went there to share the glory with Johnny.”
The third season of the show also brought back another character from the original movie. Elisabeth Shue reprised her character, Ali Mills, for the final two episodes of the season as a blast from the past for both Johnny and Daniel. In fact, it's her character that pushes the two longtime enemies to join forces, telling them: “You guys are more alike than you want to admit and maybe you recognize parts of yourselves in each other and maybe you don’t always like what you see.”
As if a fourth season of the fan favorite show wasn’t enough, Netflix renewed “Cobra Kai” for season five months ahead of the season four premiere, which will hit the streaming platform on Dec. 31, 2021.