Back when YouTube was making a
play for subscription streaming prominence via original content, their killer
app – or program as it were – was “Cobra Kai,” the surprise hit distant
sequel/spinoff to the delightfully 1980s “Karate Kid” movies. Two seasons on
YouTube Red followed by a third on Netflix, saw the un-resolved rivalry between
now-adult Karate masters Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and
their respective students, manipulated by a malevolent force that caused
changes in alliances and personalities. Fans of “Cobra Kai” expected to see the
story continue early next year, technically similar to previous seasons’
release dates. But Netflix pulled a pleasant surprise.
Forget early 2022; “Cobra Kai”
will start its fourth season before the current year even ends, according to Deadline. If season 3 was a great New
Year’s Day gift by Netflix to fans of the show, then season 4 will be a nice
early Holiday present. And regular watchers certainly need it, with the epic
cliffhanger situation from the third that sees the former rival Karate sensei
team up against the originator of the Cobra Kai dojo, who has seized the new
school from his former student and turned the protégé of the Miyagi-do school
into his new trump card.
Season 3 of “Cobra Kai” ended
with Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso combining their remaining karate pupils
to take on the former’s Sensei Kreese (Martin Kove), who not only retains some
of the fiercest students from Johnny’s Cobra Kai but also corrupted Daniel’s
student Robby (Tanner Buchanan), rather than fight in an all-out brawl, the
combined dojos will instead face Cobra Kai in the venue where the rivalry
started: at California’s All-Valley Karate Tournament. Said tournament is the
subject of the first season 4 teaser.
By being given narration similar
to a retro event commercial, the new “Cobra Kai” trailer hypes up the
All-Valley Karate Tournament while emphasizing the stakes that are now going to
be involved. As the voiceover drones that the soul of the Valley is on the
line, brief shots of the major characters involved are shown, one of them being
Thomas Ian Griffin reprising his role as Terry Silver from “The Karate Kid Part
3.” A tense shot of somebody jumping across rooftops gets intercut with some
light-hearted banter making fun of the “battle for the soul of the valley”
thing, which is pretty much par where “Cobra Kai” is concerned.
Find out how the All-Valley
Tournament settles the conflict once and for all (possibly) when “Cobra Kai” season
4 returns to Netflix this coming September.
Image courtesy of Variety
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