Netflix has started the holiday season off just right with an early Christmas present, announcing that the much-anticipated third season of hit show Cobra Kai will now premiere a week earlier expected. The series will now debut on January 1st, 2021, rather than the previous release date of January 8th. This of course means that all of the wonderful rivalries, feuds, and training montages will be back at the perfect time for Karate Kid fans to usher in the new year, as we all once again bask in the company of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence.
Set 34 years after the first Karate Kid movie, Cobra Kai re-examines the narrative from Daniel's rival, Johnny Lawrence's point of view. Now a struggling alcoholic, Johnny decides to reopen the Cobra Kai karate dojo, leading to the rekindling of his old rivalry with Daniel LaRusso.
Season 3 picks up with the characters as they struggle to come to terms with the repercussions of the brawl at the high school that closed out the show's thrilling second season finale. With Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) in a coma, both Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) must reassess the extent of their own involvement in the events that put him there and try to figure out how to forge a better path forward for their students. The drama reaches far and wide in season 3, with Robby (Tanner Buchanan) now locked up for injuring Miguel. Meanwhile Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) is once again tormented by high school bully Kyler (Joe Seo), and John Kreese (Martin Kove) tightens his stranglehold on Cobra Kai, once again instilling his students with a very questionable moral code.
As teased in the most recent Cobra Kai Season 3 trailer, Daniel and Johnny will put at least some of their differences aside and join forces to fight for their students. In a recent interview, actor Ralph Macchio drew an unexpected comparison between the warring duo of Cobra Kai and that of Friends couple Ross and Rachel. "Therein lies our Ross and Rachel thing that I mentioned earlier," Macchio explained. "Johnny and Daniel, we love to see them have a few beers and be simpatico, and then we also love to see them at each other's throats. Another thing that works so well in the show is the audience can see the different-but-same elements of these guys. It's sometimes frustrating because you just want to put them in a room together and pour a drink and just say, 'Get over it.'"
Starring Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni Decenzo, Vanessa Rubio, Peyton List, and Martin Kove alongside Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, season 3 also sees Daniel-San return to Okinawa for a Karate Kid Part II reunion featuring nemesis Chozen Toguchi, and his love interest, Kumiko, played once again by Yuji Okumoto and Tamlyn Tomita respectively.
"For Season 3, something I can tease is that, albeit we have a lot of cleaning up to do based on the events of season 2, some of the stories will dive into the origins of both Miyagi-Do Karate and Cobra Kai," Macchio revealed earlier this year. "Like, the beginnings of those two forms of martial arts, and we'll learn stuff about both that we never knew. And that includes LaRusso going to Okinawa, which is a piece of Season 3."
Netflix will now premiere Cobra Kai season 3 on January 1st, 2021 and provide the perfect viewing for New Year's Day. Happy holidays, everybody! This comes to us from the official Twitter account of Cobra Kai.