Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald sat down and discussed the show’s recent move from YouTube to Netflix during an interview with i09, and even spoke about a potential fourth season to the popular show.
Right off the bat, Hurwitz noted that he wasn’t exactly shocked by Netflix’s interest in the project. Apparently, the streaming platform wanted the show back when it was first announced.
RELATED: Cobra Kai Moving From YouTube to Netflix
“Netflix was extremely interested when we first went out with it,” said Hurwitz. “They didn’t pass on it. They made offers and were very aggressive at the time. The only reason it didn’t go to Netflix back then was simply because of YouTube’s aggressiveness and guaranteeing a full season of the show before we had ever put a word on the page.”
The move was still a bit tricky, according to Schlossberg, who explained that “it was really important for us that season three be at whatever the new platform would be because we feel so great about season three. We just finished shooting it and we want it to have the biggest possible audience. So within the past bunch of months, it wasn’t a question of ‘Oh, my God, is it going to land somewhere?’ We felt pretty confident it would land somewhere. We just wanted it to be at the best place, which is Netflix.”
And why not? According to Hurwitz, “Season three is definitely our biggest season. It’s a season of rebirth and regrouping for a lot of characters. And it’s a season where we look to the past to see our pathway to the future.”
When asked about the possibility of a fourth season. Hurwitz simply remarked that they, “will continue to make the show that we’ve been making. If there’s a little bit more money [from Netflix]? Great. We’ll put it on the screen and that would be awesome. But we’re not really concerned with that. I think the greatest element of Netflix for us simply is the ability for fans all over the world to have easy access to the show.”
In Cobra Kai, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka revisit their star-making roles from the iconic film franchise, The Karate Kid. The epic adversaries return to the dojo, thirty years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament. A down-and-out Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a now-successful Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), who has been struggling to maintain balance in his life without the guidance of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi.
YouTube officially renewed its critically-acclaimed martial arts drama series for a third season which is scheduled to premiere in 2020. The upcoming season will see Daniel LaRusso returning to Japan in order to continue to navigate through life without the mentorship of his Karate Kid sensei, Mr. Miyagi. LaRusso fought in Japan during the events of 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II.
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The first season of Cobra Kai proved to be a strong success for the video service, with the first episode garnering over 50 million views within five months of airing and critics and audiences praising the series, awarding it the rare 100 percent “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The second season also opened with a record-breaking premiere and received highly strong reviews from critics, currently sitting at an 88 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
