Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) are coming back to throw down in the new original series: Cobra Kai.
33 years after the theatrical release of The Karate Kid, Zabka (52) and Macchio (55) will reprise their roles from the original movies, this time owning rival dojos. Will they still have enough gas in the tank to show no mercy, or will this series take on the lighter side of running a dojo? We’ll find out when the series launches in 2018 on Youtube Red.
According to The Hollywood Reporter Cobra Kai already has some serious creative street cred, bringing in successful comedy writer Josh Heald (Hot Tub Time Machine), as well as Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (Harold and Kumar) for the script. Macchio and Zabka will be executive producing and pitched the project themselves.
The series landed at YouTube Red following a competitive bidding process that sources say also included offers from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and AMC after Macchio and Zabka pitched the series all over town. Macchio appeared in all three original Karate Kid features, while Zabka had roles in the first two. “They were enthusiastic and fun,” YouTube global head of originals Susanne Daniels tells THR of the pitch meeting. “I don’t know whether they had rehearsed it, but they played the parts of their characters well. More than anything, it was just amazing to see them together again.”
Daniels, who said Karate Kid still resonates with YouTube users today, noted that the series comes as part of an effort to age up YouTube Red’s demographic from 18-34 to the more advertiser-coveted 18-49 set. “It had all the elements you look for in a strong show. It had heart, it had laughs, it had drama, it had characters with strong points of view. All of it was there in the pitch,” Daniels said.
As a fan of Karate Kid from back in the 80s, I’m very excited at the prospect of this series, but perhaps the most interesting bit of information from that quote is that Daniels mentioned “Karate Kid still resonates with Youtube users today”. Could this mean that Youtube is leveraging their massive amounts of user data to decide what to produce for Youtube Red next? Excuse me while I go binge watch clip videos of Ladyhawke.
