I'll admit that I didn't exactly have high hopes for YouTube's Cobra Kai, which took place 34 years after THE KARATE KID and followed a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) as he sought redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo, but the series quickly became so much better than anyone expected it to be. It was revealed last month that Cobra Kai would be departing YouTube in search of a new streaming service to call home, and it was announced just yesterday that Cobra Kai's new home would be Netflix.
While speaking with io9, Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald discussed the series' move to Netflix, which had been interested in snagging the series from the very beginning. "Netflix was extremely interested when we first went out with it," said Hurwitz. "They didn’t pass on it. They made offers and were very aggressive at the time. The only reason it didn’t go to Netflix back then was simply because of YouTube’s aggressiveness and guaranteeing a full season of the show before we had ever put a word on the page." After the release of the second season of Cobra Kai, YouTube informed the creators that while they could move forward with a third season, they wouldn't be renewing the show for a fourth. Although Hurwitz, Schlossberg, and Heald considered releasing the third season of Cobra Kai on YouTube before searching for a new home, Schlossberg said that "it was really important for us that season three be at whatever the new platform would be because we feel so great about season three. We just finished shooting it and we want it to have the biggest possible audience. So within the past bunch of months, it wasn’t a question of ‘Oh, my God, is it going to land somewhere?’ We felt pretty confident it would land somewhere. We just wanted it to be at the best place, which is Netflix." While we don't know much about the upcoming season, other than at least part of it will take place in Okinawa, Japan, Hurwitz teased that it's easily their biggest yet.
Season three is definitely our biggest season. It’s a season of rebirth and regrouping for a lot of characters. And it’s a season where we look to the past to see our pathway to the future.
As far as a potential fourth season of Cobra Kai, it's too early to say, but Hurwitz added that they "will continue to make the show that we’ve been making. If there’s a little bit more money [from Netflix]? Great. We’ll put it on the screen and that would be awesome. But we’re not really concerned with that. I think the greatest element of Netflix for us simply is the ability for fans all over the world to have easy access to the show." The first and second seasons of Cobra Kai are expected to land on Netflix later this year, with the third season following soon after.