Cobra Kai is an American martial arts comedy drama television series created by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. It serves as a sequel to the first three The Karate Kid films created by Robert Mark Kamen. Cobra Kai premiered on May 2, 2018, and concluded on February 13, 2025, after six seasons consisting of 65 episodes. Originally released on YouTube Red / YouTube Premium for its first two seasons, the series later moved to Netflix.
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, reprising their respective roles as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence from the film series, star in Cobra Kai alongside Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Peyton List, Vanessa Rubio, and Dallas Dupree Young. Martin Kove and Thomas Ian Griffith also reprise their roles as the antagonists John Kreese and Terry Silver from the original film series. Cobra Kai re-examines The Karate Kid films as Johnny's "redemption story" that questions his role as a villain, and also introduces the struggles that both Daniel and Johnny face with their respective father figures and their children. Cobra Kai attained high viewership on both YouTube and Netflix, and received critical acclaim for its writing, performances, action sequences, humor, character development, and faithfulness to the films. It received numerous awards and nominations, with the third season being nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Premise Beginning in 2017, thirty-three years after being defeated by Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament at the end of The Karate Kid (1984), Johnny Lawrence suffers from alcoholism and depression. He is impoverished and living in an apartment in Reseda, Los Angeles, having fallen far from his wealthy lifestyle in Encino. He also has a son named Robby, but the two are estranged due to Lawrence's neglect as a parent. In contrast, Daniel is now the wealthy owner of a car dealership chain – "Larusso Auto Group" – and is married to co-owner Amanda with whom he has two children: Sam and Anthony. However, Daniel often struggles to meaningfully connect with his children especially after his friend and mentor Mr. Miyagi died prior to the series' beginning.
After using karate to defend his teenage neighbor Miguel Diaz from a group of high school bullies, Johnny re-opens Cobra Kai to train the young man in self-defense. The revived dojo attracts a group of bullied social outcasts who find camaraderie and self-confidence under Johnny's tutelage. The reopening of Cobra Kai rekindles Johnny's old rivalry with Daniel, who subsequently responds by opening the Miyagi-do dojo with Sam and Robby, leading to a rivalry between the respective dojos.
Cast and characters
Main Actor Character Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Ralph Macchio Daniel LaRusso colspan="8" William Zabka Johnny Lawrence colspan="8" Courtney Henggeler Amanda LaRusso colspan="8" Xolo Maridueña Miguel Diaz colspan="8" Tanner Buchanan Robby Keene colspan="8" Mary Mouser Samantha LaRusso colspan="8" Jacob Bertrand Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz colspan="7" Gianni DeCenzo Demetri Alexopoulos colspan="3" colspan="3" Martin Kove John Kreese colspan="7" Peyton List Tory Nichols colspan="2" colspan="5" Vanessa Rubio Carmen Diaz colspan="3" colspan="5" Thomas Ian Griffith Terry Silver colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="2" Dallas Dupree Young Kenny Payne colspan="3" colspan="4"
Recurring
Joe Seo as Kyler Park (seasons 1, 3–5; guest season 6) Annalisa Cochrane as Yasmine (seasons 1, 3; guest seasons 4–6) Bret Ernst as Louie LaRusso Jr. (seasons 1, 3; guest seasons 4–6) Bo Mitchell as Brucks (season 1; guest seasons 3, 6) Hannah Kepple as Moon Taylor (seasons 1–4; guest seasons 5–6) Dan Ahdoot as Anoush Norouzi (seasons 1–2; guest seasons 3–6) Susan Gallagher as "Homeless" Lynn (season 1; guest seasons 2–4) Griffin Santopietro as Anthony LaRusso (seasons 1, 4–6; guest seasons 2–3) Nichole Brown as Aisha Robinson (seasons 1–2; guest season 4) Rose Bianco as Rosa Diaz (seasons 1, 4, 6; guest seasons 2–3, 5) Terayle Hill as Trey (season 1; guest seasons 2–3) Jeff Kaplan as Cruz (season 1; guest seasons 2–3) Owen Morgan as Bert (seasons 2–6; guest season 1) Paul Walter Hauser as Raymond "Stingray" Porter (seasons 2, 5; guest seasons 4, 6) Aedin Mincks as Mitch (seasons 2–6) Khalil Everage as Chris (seasons 2–6) Nathaniel Oh as Nathaniel (seasons 2–6) Okea Eme-Akwari as Shawn Payne (season 3; guest seasons 4, 6) Selah Austria as Piper Elswith (season 4; guest season 2) Milena Rivero as Lia Cabrera (season 4) Brock Duncan as Zack Thompson (season 4) Oona O'Brien as Devon Lee (seasons 4–6) Yuji Okumoto as Chozen Toguchi (seasons 5–6; guest seasons 3–4) Alicia Hannah-Kim as Kim Da-Eun (seasons 5–6) Owen Harn as Gabriel (season 5) Carsten Norgaard as Gunther Braun (season 6; guest season 5) Brandon H. Lee as Kwon Jae-Sung (season 6) Daniel Kim as Yoon Do-Jin (season 6) Lewis Tan as Feng Xiao / Sensei Wolf (season 6) Patrick Luwis as Axel Kovačević (season 6) Rayna Vallandingham as Zara Malik (season 6) William Christopher Ford as Dennis de Guzman (season 6)
Guest
Ed Asner as Sid Weinberg (seasons 1, 3) Vas Sanchez as Nestor (seasons 1–2, 4, 6) Dawson Towery as Rory (season 1) Jonathan Mercedes as A.J. (season 1) Erin Bradley Dangar as Counselor Blatt (seasons 1, 3, 6) Diora Baird as Shannon Keene (seasons 1–6) David Shatraw as Tom Cole (seasons 1, 3) Ken Davitian as Armand Zarkarian (seasons 1–3) Matt Borlenghi as Lyle (seasons 1–3, 5–6) Candace Moon as Laura Lawrence (seasons 1, 4) Keith Arthur Bolden as Daryl (seasons 1, 3–4, 6) Cara AnnMarie as Sue (seasons 1, 4, 6) Kurt Yue as George (seasons 1, 4, 6) Randee Heller as Lucille LaRusso (seasons 1–2, 4, 6) Talin Chat as Xander Stone (season 1) Kim Fields as Sandra Robinson (season 2) Ron Thomas as Bobby Brown (seasons 2–3, 6) Rob Garrison as Tommy (season 2) Tony O'Dell as Jimmy (season 2) Alex Collins as Graham (season 2) John Cihangir as Doug Rickenberger (seasons 2–3) Barrett Carnahan as young John Kreese (seasons 3–6) Jesse Kove as David (season 3) Emily Marie Palmer as Betsy (seasons 3, 5) Tamlyn Tomita as Kumiko (season 3) Traci Toguchi as Yuna (season 3) Dee Snider as himself (season 3) Terry Serpico as Captain George Turner (seasons 3, 5) Nick Marini as young Terry Silver (seasons 3–6) Seth Kemp as "Ponytail" (season 3) Elisabeth Shue as Ali Mills (season 3) Deborah May as Mrs. Mills (season 3) Salome Azizi as Cheyenne Hamidi (season 4) Kevin Allison as Emile (season 4) Julia Macchio as Vanessa LaRusso (seasons 4–6) P. J. Byrne as Greg Hughes (season 4) Carrie Underwood as herself (season 4) Luis Roberto Guzmán as Hector Salazar (season 5) Josh Lawson as Owen (season 5) Eryk Anders as Vicente "The Wolf" Gonzales (season 5) Sean Kanan as Mike Barnes (seasons 5–6) Robyn Lively as Jessica Andrews (season 5) Sunny Mabrey as Elizabeth-Anne Rooney / Lizzie-Anne (season 5) Tracey Bonner as Dr. Emily Folsom (season 5) Jake Huang as Sensei Hyan-Woo (season 5) Tyron Woodley as Sensei Odell / K.O. (season 5) Dante Ha as Sensei Min-Jun (season 5) Stephen Thompson as Sensei Morozov (season 5) Craig Henningsen as Sensei Bacaria (season 5) Steve Brown as Sensei Suk-Chin (season 5) Don L. Lee (season 5) and C. S. Lee (season 6) as Master Kim Sun-Yung Adam Herschman as Stevie (season 6) Christian Carlson as Zenker (season 6) Tony Cavalero as Shane Page (season 6) Déjà Dée as Dr. Judith (season 6) Bethany DeZelle as Grace Nichols (season 6) Jewelianna Ramos-Ortiz as Maria Álvarez (season 6) Justin Ortiz as Diego Aguilar (season 6) Caitlin Hutson as Cara McAllistar (season 6) Daniel Wheat as Vlad (season 6) Josh Banks as Stew (season 6) Joshua Lamboy as Sensei Ivanov (season 6) Britt Baker as Sensei Oksana (season 6) Brian Takahashi as young Mr. Miyagi (season 6) Elizabeth Berkley as Winnie Taylor (season 6) Kevin Burkhardt as himself (season 6) Ryan Clark as himself (season 6) Darryl Vidal as himself (season 6)
Archival footage The following characters only appear via archival footage from the film series:
Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi Chad McQueen as Dutch Israel Juarbe as Freddy Fernandez Pat E. Johnson as The Referee Bruce Malmuth as The Announcer Nobu McCarthy as Yukie Danny Kamekona as Sato Toguchi Jonathan Avildsen as Snake
Episodes
Production Prior pop culture works There were a few works of popular culture prior to Cobra Kai that explored different readings of the first Karate Kid film. In 2007, the music video for the song "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings stars William Zabka (who also directed the video) as a caricature of himself as Johnny Lawrence, and features references to The Karate Kid (1984), including cameo appearances by Zabka's former co-stars. In a 2010 interview, Zabka jokingly discussed this video in the context of his vision that Johnny was the true hero of the film.
Next in June 2010, Ralph Macchio appeared in Funny or Die's online short, "Wax On, F*ck Off", in which his loved ones stage an intervention to turn the former child star from a well-adjusted family man into an addict besieged with tabloid scandal in order to help his career (with frequent references to The Karate Kid)."Wax On, F*ck Off with Ralph Macchio" Funny or Die; 2010 A recurring joke in the sketch is that Macchio is confused for an adolescent. The short was lauded by TV Guide'''s Bruce Fretts, who referred to the video as "sidesplitting" and "comic gold".Fretts, Bruce. "Cheers & Jeers"; TV Guide; July 5, 2010; Page 92
Finally, in 2013, Macchio and Zabka made guest appearances as themselves in the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Bro Mitzvah", where Macchio is invited to Barney Stinson's bachelor party, leading to Barney shouting that he hates Macchio and that Johnny was the real hero of The Karate Kid. Towards the end of the episode, a clown in the party wipes off his makeup and reveals himself as Zabka. Zabka continued to be a recurring character throughout the ninth season of the show. The creators of Cobra Kai commented on this episode stating that they "appreciate the parallel fandoms that this show has, whether it's the How I Met Your Mother storyline -- which was amazing -- we get asked all the time about that YouTube video if Daniel was the real bully...all that stuff just kind of buoyed us a little bit when we were conceiving the show and comparing the storylines to pitch the show because it made us feel confident that we weren't the only ones, and we didn't think we were, but it was nice to see other creators have Karate Kid on the mind."
Development Pitch The creators pitched the series in 2017 to outlets that included Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and AMC, using a mock trailer created with footage from prior works by Macchio and Zabka. The show was ultimately greenlit in August 2017 by the subscription service YouTube Red (later YouTube Premium). Executive producers James Lassiter and Caleeb Pinkett of Overbrook Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television joined the Cobra Kai creators.
Season releases The first and second seasons launched on YouTube Red / YouTube Premium in May 2018 and April 2019. The creators of the series explored moving to another platform ahead of the season two premiere, but the deal did not go through. The third season was produced for YouTube and was initially set for a 2020 release, but in May 2020, the series left YouTube and moved to Netflix ahead of its third-season premiere. As YouTube was not interested in renewing the series for a fourth season, the producers wanted to find a streaming venue that would leave that option open. The show moved to Netflix in June 2020, taking the third season with them.