Cobra Kai’s coming back with a vengeance. The hit Netflix series will return for season 4 in December 2021. After that game-changing season 3 finale, Cobra Kai fans are anxious to find out what’s next for our favorite characters. Season 4 is going to build up to a showdown Karate Kid fans know all too well: the All Valley Karate Tournament.
Since the show was saved by Netflix, Cobra Kai’s popularity has exploded. The third season was watched by an estimated 41 million in its first 4 weeks, according to Netflix. The show also received 4 Emmy nominations in 2021, including one for Outstanding Comedy Series. HollywoodLife is rounding up all the latest news and updates about Cobra Kai season 4 so you’re caught up to speed.
First Season 4 Teaser
“Fasten your gi. Tie your belt. Karate is coming to the world’s biggest stage where legends are born,” the voiceover says in the first teaser for season 4. The stage is none other than the All Valley Karate Tournament. “The soul of the Valley is on the line,” the voiceover adds.
There are glimpses of all your favorite characters as they prepare for the tournament. There’s also some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it looks at season 4. The trailer ends with the season 3 scene of Amanda LaRusso telling Ali Mills, “Have the man-boys filled you in on the whole ‘mortal enemy karate dojo battle for the soul of the Valley’ thing?”
The teaser also confirmed that season 4 will debut in December 2020. A specific date was not revealed, but Cobra Kai season 4 will definitely be one of the best holiday gifts of 2021!
The Show So Far
Cobra Kai debuted as a YouTube original series in 2018. The show aired for two seasons on YouTube and had filmed season 3 when YouTube stopped producing scripted original programming. Netflix acquired the rights to Cobra Kai in June 2020 and season 3 premiered on January 1, 2021.
Cobra Kai takes place 34 years after the events of the 1984 film The Karate Kid. This time around, the narrative is from Johnny Lawrence’s point of view. At the start of the series, Johnny decided to reopen the Cobra Kai karate dojo. This decision caused Daniel LaRusso to come back into Johnny’s life.
Both Johnny and Daniel now have kids. Johnny has a troubled relationship with his son, Robby. Daniel has a daughter named Samantha and a son named Anthony. The rivals have their own dojos with new characters like Miguel, Hawk, Tory, and more joining the mix.
At the end of season 2, a school fight breaks out and Miguel is seriously injured during a battle with Robby. Throughout season 3, Johnny helps Miguel recover from his injuries and eventually fight again. John Kreese, Johnny’s former mentor, also takes over Johnny’s dojo and brings Robby over to his side. By the end of season 3, Daniel and Johnny have joined forces against Kreese and formed the dojo Eagle Fang.
Is ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 4 The Final Season?
Before Cobra Kai season 3 even premiered, the show was renewed for season 4. The fourth season is not expected to be the final season of Cobra Kai, but Netflix has not made an official call yet. Filming took place in Atlanta and began in February 2021 and ended in April 2021.
Star Martin Kove, wrote about the last day of filming on April 30. “Tonight, myself and the entire crew of COBRA KAI S4 officially wrapped! What a season, And what a year. A crew that is fearless and shows no mercy, through Covid we pushed on!” he tweeted.
Given that Cobra Kai season 4 has already been completed, the fourth season will premiere by the end of 2021. The streaming service has not announced the exact release date of Cobra Kai season 4 as of now, but Netflix’s co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos revealed when fans will be able to watch season 4 while discussing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What happened in the first part of this year was that a lot of the projects that we’d hoped to come out earlier did get pushed because of the post-production delays and COVID delays and we think we’ll get back to a much steadier state in the back half of the year, certainly in Q4 where we have the returning seasons of some of our most popular shows like The Witcher and You and Cobra Kai as well as some big tentpole movies that came to market a little slower than we’d hoped like Red Notice and Escape From Spiderhead,” Ted told Deadline.
The first teaser for season 4 (see above) was released on May 27, 2021. The teaser confirmed the return of Terry Silver, a fan-favorite villain played by Thomas Ian Griffith in The Karate Kid III. “Now the real pain begins,” the 22-second teaser’s tagline read. Johnny and Daniel are going to have their hands full with both Kreese and Silver.
When HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with the Cobra Kai EPs about whether or not they already have a set ending planned for Cobra Kai, Hayden Schlossberg said: “People ask us and we don’t have a six-season plan for the show. We just kind of started out knowing what our first season was going to be, setting up a second season, and then we had ideas in our head for where the show could go with different stories and where we would want our main characters to be at the end. In our minds, we are thinking about, as each season is finished, you have a greater focus of how you’re going to reach that goal… We’re very excited about season 4. We have the whole thing planned out and, and we know where season 5 would go. We have an idea of where it’s all heading, so our hope is we just get to play it out and have a lot of fun in this franchise until we get to that end.”
‘Cobra Kai’ Season 4 Cast
The main cast members of Cobra Kai season 3 will all be returning for season 4. This includes William Zabka as Johnny, Ralph Macchio as Daniel, Xolo Maridueña as Miguel, Tanner Buchanan as Robby, Mary Mouser as Samantha, Jacob Bertrand as Hawk, Gianni DeCenzo as Demetri, Martin Kove as Kreese, and Courtney Henggler as Amanda. Peyton List, who plays Tory, and Vanessa Rubio, who plays Carmen, have both been upped to series regulars for Cobra Kai season 4.
The Cobra Kai crew will be joined by some new cast members in the fourth season. Dallas Dupree Young and newcomer Oona O’Brien will have recurring roles in the upcoming fourth season, Deadline reported. Details about their characters have not been revealed yet.
Since Terry Silver is coming back, that means Thomas Ian Griffith will be making his first appearance on Cobra Kai. Fan-favorite Ali Mills from The Karate Kid movies, played by Elisabeth Shue, guest-starred in two episodes of season 3. Elisabeth opened up about returning again in the future in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Well, we already have a plan,” she said. “It’s going to be season 9. Ali is going to come back to the Valley and start her own dojo, and it’s going to be a three-way fight for the soul of the Valley. [Laughs]”
‘Cobra Kai’ Cast & Crew Reactions
Tory has a big chip on her shoulder, but she did have real feelings for Miguel. Peyton told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that she would love to see Tory and Miguel get back together at some point in the future. “I think Miguel was really good for Tory, but I don’t think Tory was very good for Miguel because he has such a pure heart,” Peyton said in March 2021. “He has such good intentions. He’s such a sweet person that, for his sake, I don’t want I think Tory to figure herself out before they’d get back together. But I would like to see them back together. I think they understand each other. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but I would like to see it.”
At the end of season 3, Tory and Samantha faced off once again. This time, Samantha bested her rival, but Tory vowed that this fight wasn’t over. Even though Tory would like to see Tory reunite with Miguel, don’t ever expect Tory and Samantha to become best friends. “I don’t know if it’ll ever be over,” Peyton told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY during the Netflix show’s virtual press junket in December 2020. “I think someone asked us the other day. They go, is this going to be a 30-year feud? Just like Johnny and Daniel? And I’m like, I think maybe. I think there will always be more with these two.”
Mary added, “I like the rivalry. I think it’s fun. I think it’s fun to have that kind of, not even just anger or like grudges, but just that passionate blind focus of like, this person is the reason that my life is whatever it is right now. And I have to fix it. I have to take it out on them. Whatever it is, I think it’s super fun.”
When it comes to the long-awaited team-up of Johnny and Daniel, creator Jon Hurwitz revealed to HollywoodLife that that was always the “plan from the beginning.” However, season 4 won’t always be a smooth ride for these former rivals, according to creator Josh Heald, even though Johnny and Daniel are working together now. There will be complications.
“He’s still Daniel and he’s still Johnny,” Josh told HollywoodLife. “They each have a pretty decided upon and distinct mindset and point of view that’s going to be challenging the other at times and the audience is in for a journey in season 4 to see: can they make this work?”