Youtube's KARATE KID Series COBRA KAI Will Be Faithful To The Original Movie
A YouTube Executive revealed new details about the YouTube Red original series Cobra Kai, which is based on the 1980s classic The Karate Kid at Television Critics Association.
YouTube Global Head of Original Content Susanne Daniels told /Film that Ralph Macchio and William Zabka will reprise their rival roles as Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence from the original movie. The series comes from Harold and Kumar franchise creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, and Hot Tub Time Machine writer Josh Heald, but Daniels insists that Cobra Kai is not a straight comedy.
“It is a half an hour format but I would call it a dramedy. I think it leans into the tone of the movies in that there are dramatic moments throughout. I think it’s very faithful really in some ways to what the movie set about doing, the lessons imparted in the movie if you will. It’s next generation Karate Kid.”
Cobra Kai is set in present day, and it follows Johnny as he reopens the old Cobra Kai dojo, reigniting the old rivalry with Daniel LaRusso. Since so much time has passed since they last faced off, both Daniel and Johnny now have teenage kids of their own. Daniels said:
“What’s interesting, I find, is that it doesn’t have to be a hit movie. A hit movie doesn’t necessarily mean a hit TV series. Clueless is a movie I still like and still watch. The TV version of it wasn’t great, I thought, all due respect to Amy Heckerling. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was not a great movie and Joss [Whedon] did a great job making the series. It’s about finding the right movie and finding the right director/producer/writer team that understands how to take the movie and make it into a series franchise.”
Are you excited for this series? Will LaRusso pass on the invaluable lessons like "Wax On, Wax Off?" We shall see when Cobra Kai debuts this spring on YouTube Red.
