Netflix has released an early Cobra Kai season 4 trailer, promising a return to the All-Valley Karate Championship. Originally debuting on YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium) in 2018, Cobra Kai found itself homeless after the streaming service decided to stop producing original programming. Fortunately it was picked up by Netflix for its third season which premiered earlier this year. Regardless of platform, the series has received high viewership, frequently placing itself high on the list of most viewed streaming shows. However its move to Netflix has certainly made more viewers aware of it. Cobra Kai has also received critical acclaim, with many praising its blend of humor, nostalgia, and well-written characters.
Set 34 years after the events of The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai primarily focuses on the inability of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Danny LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to let go of their past. However, the season three finale offered something of a resolution to the characters’ long-standing rivalry, with the pair setting their differences aside and combining their respective Karate schools under the Miyagi-Do banner to oppose John Kreese’s (Martin Kove) hostile takeover of Cobra Kai.
The short Cobra Kai season 4 trailer released by Netflix teases the upcoming confrontation between the two schools and promises the return of the iconic All-Valley Karate tournament that was the focus of both the original Karate Kid and the first season of Cobra Kai. It also depicts the show’s various characters training as well as brief shots from the upcoming season that will likely be extrapolated on when the eventual trailer is released.
Little is currently known about what season 4 will entail, however the return of the All-Valley Karate Tournament is often treated as the place where rivalries are settled once and for all. As such, this could suggest that the upcoming season may in fact be its final one. With Johnny and Danny’s rivalry potentially being laid to rest, it’s hard to see where else the show can realistically go as and when Kreese is dealt with. That’s not to say that there isn’t scope for more to come. Previous teasers for season 4 have hinted at the return of Thomas Ian Griffith’s Terry Silver, the villain of The Karate Kid Part III and co-founder of Cobra Kai, and have stated that even greater pain will be in store for the show’s protagonists going forward. A figure is seen tying up their hair in the latest teaser, similar to how Silver wears his, so it’s more than likely he will be the latest figure from the original trilogy to make an appearance.
Co-creator Jon Hurwitz has also teased an escalation in the rivalry between Danny’s daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) and Tory Nichols (Peyton List) who, over the last two seasons, have built a rivalry that could arguably eclipse Danny and Johnny’s. It remains to be seen whether the writers would prefer to pay that off now, or develop it even further into a possible season 5. Fans will just have to wait for further information when a full trailer is unveiled and when Cobra Kai season 4 is released in December.
