The first episodes from the sixth season of Cobra Kai have just landed, but why is this the final season of the show? Read on for all the details.
It was announced in early 2023 that the sixth season of the Karate Kid spinoff show would be the last one, and as of today (July 18), the first five episodes are available to stream on Netflix.
These represent the first third of the final season, with the next five episodes arriving on November 28, and the climactic five, dubbed ‘The Finale Event’, at some point in 2025.
The run was originally slated for a December 2023 release, only to be held back by the Hollywood strikes.
Cobra Kai follows characters from the original Karate Kid films, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), reframing the franchise from Johnny’s point of view as he decides to reopen his karate dojo and rekindle his rivalry with Daniel.
Elsewhere in the franchise, a new feature film, titled simply Karate Kid, is set to arrive on May 30, 2025, starring Jackie Chan alongside Macchio, as a follow-up to 2010’s The Karate Kid. Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz confirmed he was not involved in that film.
Why is Cobra Kai ending after six seasons?
Ahead of the premiere of the first third of season six, the show’s co-creators Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald have discussed the decision to bring it to an end.
Schlossberg told Screen Rant that the realisation came during the making of season five. “We knew in season five that we were in endgame times,” he said. “It wasn’t until after we shot season five that we kind of worked out exactly, “Okay, this is going to be the end afterwards.”
Hurwitz added: “It was hugely important to us from the beginning [to have a finish line]…So, we knew where we wanted the Johnny and Daniel relationship to be, and we knew some of the things that are happening in that final episode.”
“A lot of things evolved along the way, but there was always sort of that North Star, and we were determined to will as many seasons as possible.”
Hurwitz also reflected on the pivotal moment in the show’s history when it transitioned from YouTube, which was home to its first two seasons, to Netflix, who picked up the show thereafter.
“Dating back to the YouTube days, we felt really confident that we would crush it the first season, and that we’d be able to keep making more. The big twist for us was that YouTube stopped being a thing. [Laughs] So, at that point, it was like, ‘Okay, we got to do everything we can.’”
“I remember when making the third season, for example, we were like, ‘How do we make this season have so much spectacular stuff and have so many elements that are making you want more?’ So that, in a scenario…there’s enough juice to make it appealing to other places…and here we are.”
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