Cobra Kai has been a major hit for Netflix since making the jump from YouTube, with its third season clocking up acclaim from critics and subscribers. A fourth block of episodes is expected to premiere in late 2021, and there are reportedly plans to keep the series going for at least another year beyond that, too.
The producers of Cobra Kai have now provided a glimpse into the direction that the program will head in when it returns, and are promising to increase the scale of the action. Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg recently discussed the future of Cobra Kai at a Paley Front Row panel, and revealed that shooting has wrapped on the next outing of the spinoff from The Karate Kid.
Here’s what Heald had to say about what fans can expect:
“All I can say is it was really important for us to end season 3 the way we did with a kind of like ‘yah’ as a feeling as opposed to ‘aw’ where season 2 went. And we want to deliver that feeling. We want to keep providing the dopamine that generates that good feeling. We want to make sure we’re delivering on goosebumps, on tears, on belly laughs, and fist bumps. It’s the same recipe with different tastes and everything else, but it’s even bigger so we’re really, really proud of what we’re making so far. I can’t wait for you to see what everybody’s doing.”
Their remarks particularly highlight the upbeat ending of the third outing, which set up an intriguing new combination of alliances between the various dojos, with clashes eventually spilling out of tournaments and into different locations. Given how the production has gradually expanded its Miyagi-verse to bring in names from the original Karate Kid franchise, we’d imagine there’ll be some additional faces turning up for the new storylines.
Although there aren’t many firm details yet about what’s going to happen in Cobra Kai‘s fourth run, it’s been announced that Peyton List (Tory) and Vanessa Rubio (Carmen Diaz) have been upgraded to regular cast member status, while Oona O’Brien and Dallas Dupree Young are joining as new supporting characters Devon and Kenny. Based on what we’ve already seen of John Kreese’s backstory, we’d also wager there’ll be more Vietnam flashbacks to flesh out his experiences.
We’d hope, then, that a first teaser for Cobra Kai season 4 will arrive soon, especially now that filming is over, and that Netflix can put an official release date on it.