Credit: Cobra Kai/Netflix
In the world of constant reboots and revivals, even film series that most felt should remain untouched, such as The Karate Kid franchise. The Karate Kid was revived once before with Will Smith, his real-life son Jaden Smith, and Jackie Chan in 2010 and received mixed reviews, which may have led to the reboot of Karate Kid as a Netflix series with members of the original cast of the first three Karate Kid films. The Netflix series that provided the revival of The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai, which just finished its fifth season, may have initially made audiences skeptical. Still, the series has not only expanded upon the original, well-known story but has built constantly upon the films before it. Below, we’ve detailed the Netflix series Cobra Kai, detailed The Karate Kid films series from which the Netflix series was inspired, and other aspects of the overall popular Karate Kid franchise.
Credit: Cobra Kai/Netflix
The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid premiered its first film in 1984. While it was the first film in the soon-to-grow franchise, it has also been noted for popularizing karate in the United States and helping the career of Ralph Macchio and Noriyuki Morita, as well as Macchio was in The Outsiders the year before. Morita was mainly known for comedic roles. Overall, The Karate Kid follows Ralph Macchio’s character as he learns karate from Mr. Miyagi to defend himself from his bully, one of the main characters of Cobra Kai, and also fight for his love interest throughout the film. The characters and story of the first The Karate Kid film have been the most notable of the entire franchise. Yet, the events of each film and even events that have taken place between and after the films have been documented in the Netflix series Cobra Kai. However famous the first Karate Kid film may have been, even today, the second, third, and fourth films have also had their place in the franchise. Karate Kid Part II featured Mr. Miyagi and Daniel taking a trip to Okinawa and encountering an old adversary of his teacher.
Credit: Cobra Kai/Netflix
The Karate Kid Sequels and Reboot
As stated above, The Karate Kid franchise has had three original movies, a soft reboot with Hilary Swank called The New Karate Kid, a reboot with Will Smith, and the most current continuation, the Cobra Kai series. Karate Kid Part II featured the beloved main characters as they went to Okinawa. The Karate Kid Part III featured Mr. Miyagi and Daniel yet again. Still, this time the owner of the Cobra Kai studio hired others and even faked his death to attempt to get the upper hand on Miyagi and his student. While the attempts were excessive and violent, Daniel had won the tournament yet again and foiled the plans of his former bully’s mentor. The Next Karate Kid featured Mr. Miyagi in the lead role of the teacher in the fourth installment, and the earlier mentioned Hilary Swank, as she learned to deal with her bully as Daniel did. Much like the reboot, The Next Karate Kid did not feature Ralph Macchio as his character from the rest of the franchise. The reboot film The Karate Kid was a complete reboot with a new setting, cast, and even type of martial arts, as kung fu replaced karate from the original films. The Karate Kid reboot was released in 2010, and it may have been the negative reviews that the film received that inspired Cobra Kai to include as much of the original cast and franchise as possible.
Credit: Cobra Kai/Netflix
The Karate Kid Series Cobra Kai Detailed
As we’ve detailed the Cobra Kai series, it should be noted that while the series has been widely popular on its home on Netflix, the series was actually created for YouTube, and more specifically YouTube Red subscribers, before the service was changed to YouTube Premium. Finally, the series officially moved to Netflix when YouTube abandoned original programming. With the launch of Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid franchise took a new approach with the series instead of a showcase of Ralph Macchio’s character like the rest of the films. The Cobra Kai series followed Daniel and William Zabka’s character as he re-opened the studio where he learned his karate, Cobra Kai. Although the series has been heavily created following the events of the previous films and has been composed of the Miyagi-Verse, in which any character from the Karate Kid franchise that knew Mr. Miyagi could appear through the series we’ve detailed. Cobra Kai has also been much more lighthearted than the original films, so much so that the series has been dubbed a martial arts comedy.
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