Where to Watch Cobra Kai
The Karate Kid is back in a new series set 34 years after the events of the original film. It’s called Cobra Kai and follows the reopening of the iconic dojo and the reignited rivalry between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. William Zabka and Ralph Maccio are set to reprise their roles, with Mr Miyagi’s passing having a great affect on the course of the show.
Cobra Kai will debut on YouTube Red on May 2, 2018. Having a YouTube Red subscription will be the only way to watch the show legally, with the first season set to offer up ten episodes which run a half hour each. The service is exclusive to the United States, Australia, Mexico, South Korea and New Zealand and is a paid subscription service with a library of original content. You also get ad-free streaming as part of the service, as well as offline play and spans the YouTube Gaming, YouTube Kids and YouTube Music apps.
The show has already premiered to critics, currently holding a 100% rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, and 72 out of 100 on Metacritic. The original Karate Kid movie released back in 1984 and told the story of Daniel LaRusso, a young man who is taught karate by an old maintenance worker called Mr Miyagi. He enters a Karate competition to beat the kids who have been bullying him, with Miyagi serving as his mentor throughout. The film was followed by three sequels and a reboot in 2010 starring Jayden Smith and Jackie Chan. YouTube had to out-bid Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and AMC for the rights to the new show.
Cobra Kai isn’t the only YouTube Red series focusing on a beloved movie, as a drama series based on the Step Up franchise is in the works and is set to star Ne-Yo. The service intends to base several shows around popular celebrities, with Ellen DeGeneres and Kevin Hart already signed up as partners.
