A rivalry brewing since Karate Kid first premiered in 1984 is coming to a head in the trailer for YouTube Red’s new series, Cobra Kai.
Though the rivalry between Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) may have started over thirty years ago, time hasn’t done anything to cool their infamous feud. The trailer for the new YouTube Red series is short, but it lets us know things are still just as tenuous between Johnny and Daniel as they were back in the eighties.
Johnny and Daniel aren’t in high school anymore, but they still find themselves at odds in YouTube Red’s Cobra Kai. When Johnny decides to re-open the infamous Cobra Kai dojo, old grudges come back up to the surface.
Of course, people evolve and change as they get older, so maybe this will be a new era for Cobra Kai, right? Well, don’t get your hopes up. Though Johnny has had 30 years to grow and evolve from his high school self, we see Johnny paint “no mercy” on the wall and tell his students, “You’re not trained to be merciful here, mercy is for the weak.”
For his part, Daniel seems to also still be invested in martial arts. We see a few shots of him training another student, saying “You may know the moves, but none of that matters if you don’t have balance.” Entertainment Weekly has said that while Johnny is sticking with his role as the villain, Daniel will be taking a bullied student under his wing in the series.
It will be interesting to see how fans feel about this reboot of a cult classic. As most fans of Karate Kid are in some stage of adulthood now, this YouTube Red series might have the perfect blend of nostalgia and new content to bring in a big audience. Cobra Kai will release on YouTube Red later this year.