By On January 8, the hotly anticipated third season of Cobra Kai, the streaming series continuation of The Karate Kid franchise, lands on Netflix.
The hit show follows the grown up Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), and his high-school bully Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), as they both set out to teach karate to a new generation of kids with their rival karate dojos, all the while letting their petty 30+ year rivalry get in the way of their better judgement.
The show mixes new stories with a sense of reverence for the legacy of the franchise that began back in 1984 with John G Avildsen’s The Karate Kid. That tale of the young bullied LaRusso finding a mentor in his building’s handyman, the Okinawa-born karate expert Mr Miyagi (played by the late Noriyuki “Pat” Morita), continues to resonate with audiences, as the success of the show demonstrates.
That first movie kicked off a franchise that had a fair few stops on its way to the Cobra Kai series. Macchio and Morita returned for two direct sequels, followed by a Macchio-less part four, The Next Karate Kid, starring Hilary Swank in an early role, while a remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan came out in 2010.
Full article is over at Digital Spy, originally published December 11th 2020.
Andrew Gaudion 