YouTube Red refuses to get Cobra Kai a body bag, orders a second season

By Sam Barsanti | May 10, 2018 | 7:56pm

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YouTube Red refuses to get Cobra Kai a body bag, orders a second season

Despite being a nostalgic cash-in on YouTube Red, the Karate Kid revival series Cobra Kai turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. Like everything that’s a surprisingly enjoyable nostalgic cash-in, then, it will now be sticking around for a while. In a press release, YouTube has announced that Cobra Kai will be returning for a second season in 2019, with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka both returning to the Karate Kid roles they reprised for the show’s first season. The press release also says all members of season one’s regular cast will return, and the new season will be 10 episodes long.

Since premiering less than a week ago, the first episode of Cobra Kai has already received more than 20 million views, though YouTube won’t share specific viewership numbers (much like its more-established TV-streaming competitors). The series takes place more than 30 years after the finale of the original Karate Kid movie, with Zabka and Macchio playing older versions of Johnny Lawrence and Danny LaRusso.