‘Cobra Kai’: When Can You Watch the ‘Karate Kid’ Series on Netflix?
Cobra Kai was the crown jewel in YouTube’s original programming slate. The Karate Kid series picked up Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) as adults and continued the rivalry between Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita) and John Kreese (Martin Kove)’s students.
After two seasons, YouTube has moved away from its original programs. They’d made the first two seasons available to watch without a subscription, but with ads. On June 22, Netflix announced Cobra Kai was moving to the streaming service. They will become the home of the first to seasons and upcoming third season. Here’s more, from Netflix’s press release.
The creators of ‘Cobra Kai’ have been looking for a new home
As of Season 2, the plan was to continue running the Karate Kid series on YouTube. With YouTube ending its Premium service, that likely meant running Cobra Kai with commercials. Based on the statement from realtors Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald in the press release, the show’s studio, Sony Pictures Televison has been looking for a new home for them. Sony’s Columbia Pictures released the Karate Kid films.
“Making Cobra Kai has been a dream come true for us since day one,” Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Heald said in the statement. “We are thankful for the tireless dedication of Jeff Frost, Chris Parnell, Jason Clodfelter, Karen Tatevosian and all our partners at Sony for finding us a new home where we can not only continue the series, but also explore opportunities to further expand The Karate Kid universe.”
This explains the delay for season 3 of ‘Cobra Kai’
Season 1 debuted May 2, 2018. Season 2 followed April 24, 2019. Fans expected Season 3 in the spring of 2020. However, with the shutdown of Hollywood during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg had no information on the third season.
Now it appears the hold up may not have been entirely COVID-19 related. If this Netflix deal was in the works, that would explain holding off on Season 3 so that Netflix has time to introduce its millions of subscribers to Cobra Kai.
“We are beyond excited to join our new partners at Netflix and look forward to the show reaching the massive global audience who loves this franchise as much as we do,” Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Heald said in the press release.
When the first two seasons and season 3 premiere on Netflix
Netflix will premiere the first two seasons of Cobra Kai later in 2020. They will follow with the third season, though the press release does not confirm how soon after, or whether we will have to wait until 2021 to see the new episodes.
Cobra Kai fans have been waiting in suspense since the season 2 finale. It ended with an epic martial arts brawl on the first day of high school between all of the young characters, and a cliffhanger for one in particular. Johnny will also have some fallout from his dojo to face when season 3 returns.
