Cobra Kai’s continuing Karate Kid chaos will escalate sooner than discerning viewers might have initially guessed, thanks to a surprise announcement by Netflix. Indeed, while the streamer auspiciously ordered a fifth frame for the celebrated cinematic spinoff series this past August, ahead of the December-delivered fourth season, the new season’s process from greenlight to production will ultimately span a little over a year. That’s because an early September release date is now set. As if that wasn’t enough, Netflix also served up a packed teaser trailer!
Following last season’s climactic events of the 51st Annual All Valley Karate Championship, the fifth season of Cobra Kai will showcase the subsequent victorious dominance of the temerarious Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). The returning cackling Machiavellian manipulator of 1989’s The Karate Kid Part III managed to get former cohort John Kreese (Martin Kove) wrongfully incarcerated and conveniently out of the picture, and has taken complete control of the Cobra Kai dojo, turning it into an ostentatiously decorated franchise resembling gentrified gyms, rapidly spreading its toxic teachings across the valley. Yet, while conditions of their students’ tournament loss have taken Daniel and Johnny out of the dojo business, there are clearly still some aces up their sleeves.
Check out the Cobra Kai Season 5 trailer just below.
Silver’s goal, as loudly declared in The Karate Kid Part III, of opening Cobra Kai dojos across the valley has finally manifested substantially over 30 years later—well, sans the hyperbolic part where he said he’d teach for free. As expected, Silver’s upgrade represents an extravagantly garish endeavor that serves as a tribute to his own ego, notably exemplified by the main dojo’s unavoidable back wall image prominently featuring (who else?) himself.
The snowballing of the dojo franchise will apparently occur as Johnny (William Zabka) and recently reconciled son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) follow through on a trip to Mexico to search for his wayward student and would-be stepson, Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), who abruptly left in search of his purportedly shady biological father, leading to the below-the-border adventures prominently showcased in the teaser. In the meantime, Daniel (Ralph Macchio) is planning a strategy to get around his tournament ban, specifically one involving rival-turned-friend Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), whose new “good guy” temperament still sometimes takes a backseat to the signature intense aggression he famously brandished as the villain of 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II; a potentially flammable idea that Silver seems to be discovering for himself in the clip’s teased confrontation between the former film antagonists. The prospect of these two tangling will likely stand as the most surreal and exciting takeaway here for fans.
Consequently, there is much about which to get excited for Cobra Kai Season 5, which, in an extra treat to fans, has set its bingeable premiere for September 5. And for those who might wonder why a September date is considered “early,” it has to do with recent conventions. While the show never had a traditional trajectory, having started as a scripted diamond in the rough on the struggling platform experiment YouTube Premium (née YouTube Red), the show’s current lease on life as part of Netflix has seen it serve as a New Year’s winter treat, with Season 3 having premiered on January 1, 2021, which would be closely duplicated by Season 4’s December 31, 2021 date.
Regardless, Cobra Kai is continuing its epic delivery of (not quite deadly) dojo warfare just after Labor Day on Friday, September 9.
