The Karate Kid completists surely noted that the final Cobra Kai episode addressed a question that lingered throughout the Netflix series. That is to say, we saw the long overdue payoff from Johnny Lawrence’s “You’re alright, LaRusso” from the first movie. The former rivals finally put their lingering beef behind them (for real this time), and the Miyagi-do members largely went out into the the world with Sony being upfront about how Daniel’s story would continue with the Karate Kid: Legends movie, which would presumably take the franchise in an entirely different direction.
However, Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg previously did not hesitate to express willingness for a spin off. Thoughts of a Miyagi-focused prequel (although his backstory honestly appears to have been covered just fine by now) have also surfaced along with several other ideas, but two months after the finale, has there been any movement? Hurwitz recently spoke with The Direct about a slight update:
“I mean, we have a buffet in front of us in terms of what we’d like to do, and it just has to line up with what our partners at Sony and Netflix want to do. There are contemporary spin-offs that take place after the events of Cobra Kai … There are other spin-offs that, you know, we know the audience has been speculating about that took place 100 years ago. We’ll have to see, you know, and everything in between. We’ll have to see which one is the right time and the right project.”
Hurwitz also expressed optimism about more news possibly coming “soon,” which of course does not answer the question of if another show will be greenlit. A few months ago, Hayden Schlossberg also claimed to EW, “We’re definitely closer, but we can’t say anything yet.” In that conversation, Hurwitz did add (of the idea involving “Binary Brothers” Hawk and Dimitri at Cal Tech), “There may actually be a document, a very thorough document.” And of course, Jacob Bertrand once told us that he dug that idea, too.
A quick internet search will reveal that viewers wouldn’t mind seeing followup shows about the various couples (Robby and Tory, Miguel and Sam, Chozen and Kim Da-Eun) on the series, but nah, it’s time to let them go. A more interesting idea involves the Iron Dragons dojo, especially if such a show revolves around Axel Kovacevic (Patrick Luwus) and Zara Malik (Rayna Vallandingham) as leading dojo members. Games Radar noted that Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg have openly acknowledged this possibility, although no confirmation has arrived. Yet. Still, after watching Axel refuse to obey Sensei Wolf’s orders to take Miguel out by targeting a vulnerable spot, he deserves more airtime, right? Send it to the Internets, Netflix.
Karate Kid: Legends comes to theaters on May 30, and Cobra Kai‘s six seasons are streaming on Netflix.