Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
Although Cobra Kai was great, the six-season Netflix hit was so good that the show accidentally ruined the Karate Kid franchise itself. Every once in a while, a sequel or spinoff comes along and manages to completely outshine the original movie or series that it was based on.
Admittedly, this is still a fairly rare occurrence. However, the sheer number of reboots, prequels, sequels, and re-imaginings that have sprung up in theaters and on streaming in recent years makes it more likely with each passing year. For example, the Karate Kid’s sequel series Cobra Kai delved so deeply into the psychology of both the original movie’s hero and villain that it ended up outshining a later theatrical reboot. Cobra Kai Was So Good That It Accidentally Shamed The Karate Kid Franchise Across its six seasons, Cobra Kai took the villain of the original movie, William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence, and turned this one-dimensional bad guy into a truly fascinating, complicated antihero. Inevitably, this also required the show to turn Ralph Macchio’s straightforwardly heroic protagonist, Daniel LaRusso, into a more complicated character, too. By Cobra Kai’s series finale, a franchise that had started out with a simplistic story of an underdog beating his bully became a sprawling, morally ambiguous study of friendship, redemption, and second chances. If the original movie had been a classic heroic fantasy, then Cobra Kai would have been the equivalent of Game of Thrones. The show switched between the perspectives of Johnny, Daniel, and their respective students to illustrate the blind spots that every character had and the ways that failing to grow and change could doom them. In the process, however, Cobra Kai accidentally made the rest of the Karate Kid franchise look pretty childish and unsophisticated. Karate Kid: Legends Couldn’t Recapture Cobra Kai’s Success In comparison, the movies were fun wish-fulfillment stories, but lacked the depth and introspection that a longer, more complex series like Cobra Kai reveled in. This was particularly obvious in the case of 2025’s reboot Karate Kid: Legends, since the movie was released after Cobra Kai’s finale. Subscribe for Deeper Takes on Cobra Kai and Franchises Get more from the newsletter: subscribing delivers focused coverage and critical analysis of Cobra Kai, Karate Kid reboots, and how modern spinoffs reshape beloved franchises — perfect if you want thoughtful context and smart takes on franchise evolution. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Although Karate Kid: Legends did make $117 million on a budget of $45 million, there is a reason the reboot earned a lukewarm 58% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. While Karate Kid: Legends wasn’t an outright bad movie, it failed to expand on the moral complexity that Cobra Kai built into the world of the franchise. Karate Kid: Legends’ story of Mr. Han’s grandnephew, Ben Wang, and his two karate trainers went right back to the profitable, reliable underdog formula of the original movies, and fell short as a result. After Cobra Kai complicated the entire Karate Kid franchise, bringing back its overly familiar story beats felt more tired than nostalgic. 382 9.1/10 8/10 Cobra Kai 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-14 Drama Comedy Action Release Date 2018 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix, YouTube Premium Showrunner Jon Hurwitz Directors Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, Joel Novoa, Jennifer Celotta, Steven K. Tsuchida, Sherwin Shilati, Marielle Woods, Steve Pink, Lin Oeding, Michael Grossman Writers Josh Heald, Ashley Darnall, Chris Rafferty, Bill Posley Cast See All
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