Season 3 of 'Cobra Kai,' the 'Karate Kid' spin-off on Netflix, arrives one week early
Merry Christmas to fans of The Karate Kid! Netflix has a special treat for you.
The Cobra Kai spin-off series, which started life as a YouTube original before moving to Netflix in June 2020, is arriving one entire week earlier than expected. The Season 3 premiere had originally been set for Jan. 8, but Netflix announced a Jan. 1 premiere in a little video short featuring star William Zabka.
Zabka played Johnny Lawrence in the first Karate Kid movie, serving as the main antagonist to star Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso. Cobra Kai largely serves as a redemption story for Johnny, picking up 34 years after the first movie as he re-opens the titular dojo that taught him to fight. But where the Cobra Kai of old provided, essentially, training for bullies, Johnny's new take is aimed more at guiding trainees toward a more positive path.
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The show was one of YouTube's few original series' that really landed, with two successful seasons there before the company's business plan changed and Netflix swooped in to grab Cobra Kai. So the imminent launch of Season 3 — which completed production no later than summer 2020, if not before — is the first time Netflix subscribers will have access to all-new episodes.
The streaming content provider already signed off on a fourth season, too, so there's even more Cobra Kai to come.
To go along with the surprise early premiere news, Netflix also released this statement from an in-character Johnny: "I heard you all whining about Season 3 taking forever. So I called the pawn shop and the guy walked me through this Netflix thing. Dude knows his stuff. Now you get it a week early. See you on New Year's, nerds."
You can check out Seasons 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai on Netflix right now and then return on Jan. 1 to get your binge on with Season 3.
Topics Netflix
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
