Good news: Cobra Kai season 5 has a release date. Even better news: it’s arriving in September, which is a few months earlier than most would have anticipated. There’s also a trailer for you to get stuck into, which features the first look at Chozen’s return, plus Terry Silver’s plans to conquer the valley, Cobra Kai-style.
Beyond that, we’ll take a look at the cast list for the upcoming season on Netflix, what the future might hold for the Karate Kid spin-off, and also our own exclusive quotes from our interview with the Cobra Kai creators.
The future of the valley is at stake in ways we’ve never seen before, with the karate championship marking a bitter turning point that could threaten the world beyond those involved in martial arts.
Cobra Kai season 4 spoilers follow.
Cobra Kai never dies and everybody knows this for better or for worse. In fact, after the events of the season four finale, the fearless dojo actually seems to be getting stronger by the day.
But that’s not necessarily a good thing, with their bullying tactics getting worse than ever thanks to Terry Silver’s hostile takeover.
Now Kreese is in jail for attempted murder (after being framed by his former ally), the only people who stand a chance of stopping them are the good folks at Miyagi-Do.
After decades of spats and wars, can Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso finally unite their karate-loving students long enough to take down the most dangerous person in the valley and his violent lackeys?
Cobra Kai season 5 is officially coming to Netflix on September 9. That’s earlier than the show’s usual release window of December-January. All episodes of the season are expected to drop at once. There is no Stranger Things-style splitting of the seasons here.
Cobra Kai season 5 release date: When will new episodes drop?
We finally have a release date for the series and the team at Cobra Kai are treating us to a new series much earlier than anticipated. SEND IT TO THE INTERNET.
The new season will drop on September 9. Get your gis ready for some high-kicking fun.
This is a massive jump forward in the schedule for the show, considering since Cobra Kai was bought by Netflix from YouTube Red/Premium, new seasons have dropped on New Year’s Day (season three) and New Year’s Eve (season four).
Cobra Kai season 5 trailer
The first trailer for Cobra Kai season 5 has been released, and you can watch it above.
It follows on from the 51st All Valley Karate Championship – a tournament that saw Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang close in contentious circumstances after a controversial win for Tory and Cobra Kai in the finals.
The trailer teases out Terry Silver’s plans to franchise the dojo all across the valley. Fighting back is Daniel LaRusso – has turned to his one-time rival Chozen for help in taking the fight back to Silver.
Cobra Kai season 5 isn’t just dealing with karate shenanigans in Los Angeles, however. Johnny is seen heading down south with his son, Robby, to find Miguel – who ran away from home to find his father at the tail-end of the fourth season.
Cobra Kai is cemented by one major thing – the fragile frenemyship (frenemosity?) between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, played by Ralph Macchio and William Zabka respectively.
Their complicated rivalry was sparked in the original Karate Kid all the way back in 1984, and Cobra Kai hinges on their efforts to move on from decades of hating each other. So obviously they’re back to finish what they started.
Cobra Kai season 5 cast
We’ve seen in the trailer that certain characters are back. Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence will return – which means Ralph Macchio and William Zabka are back. We’ll Courtney Henggeler is back as Amanda LaRusso, plus Vanessa Rubio as Carmen Diaz, too.
Big bad Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) will have a big part to play in season 5, and we’ll most likely see John Kreese (Martin Kove) back again too (after a potential stint in prison, that is – more on that in a moment).
The final moments of season 4 also confirmed a surprise cast member will be part of the next season: Yuji Okumoto is returning as Chozen, after he first reprised his role from The Karate Kid 2 in season 3.
As for the younger cast, the familiar faces of Xolo Maridueña as Miguel Diaz, Mary Mouser as Samantha LaRusso, and Tanner Buchanan as Robby Keene are back. As is Peyton List’s Tory.
Jacob Bertrand as Hawk, Gianni DeCenzo as Demetri Alexopoulos, Peyton List as Tory Nichols, Joe Seo as Kyler Park, Selah Austria as Piper, Khalil Everage as Chris, Aedin Mincks as Mitch, Hannah Kepple as Moon, Owen Morgan as Bert, and Nathaniel Oh as Nate have all either been confirmed in pre-release material or are likely to return in some capacity
Wecan also count on Griffin Santopietro back as Anthony LaRusso, while newcomers Dallas Young as Kenny Payne is back.
It remains to be seen if Paul Walter Hauser will be back as Stingray after his surprise role in season 4.
Cobra Kai Season 5 plot
Season 4 was a major paradigm shift for Cobra Kai, so we can expect season 5 to deal with the fallout. For one thing, the combined forces of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang (or Miyagi-Fang) weren’t enough to beat Cobra Kai at the All Valley, who won both the girls’ side of the tournament and the overall prize. In the wake of the big win, Terry Silver has pledged to open new dojos all across the Valley – which will make fighting back against the Cobra Kais that much harder next season.
And it will most likely be a fight. Despite the deal to quit teaching karate should Miyagi-Do or Eagle Fang fail to win the tournament, Daniel LaRusso is still intent on bringing down Cobra Kai. This time, he’s enlisted Chozen for help. Considering the last time they met, Chozen passed on a secret (and very effective) Miyagi-Do technique to Daniel, we can expect the former antagonist to have more tricks up his sleeve in the new season. It’s also likely the partnership will be a serious challenge for Silver and the Cobra Kais.
“Chozen is one of our favorite characters in the franchise,” co-creator Jon Hurwitz told GamesRadar+ of the character’s return. “When Yuji [Okumoto] returned in season 3, the scenes that he had with Ralph [Macchio] were some of our favorites in that season, both from a karate standpoint, but also a comedy standpoint. We love that dynamic and just what he brings. And beyond that he’s got demons, he has things that he’s working through himself in life. So he’s a fully realized character that has work to be done, and what better time for him to come to the United States and join the fight in the Valley than when Terry Silver is on top? Because, as we all know, Terry Silver is a very formidable opponent… If Cobra Kai is going to have Terry Silver on that side, to bring in Chozen who has a history of fighting to the death and fearlessness, and seemingly is more skilled and is more of a karate threat than Daniel, even, at this point, it felt like it was great for season 5 to have Chozen and Silver as opposing forces.”
As for John Kreese, he’s out of the picture – for now. At the end of the season, Silver orchestrated his old buddy’s arrest by framing Kreese for the brutal beatdown Silver himself delivered to Stingray. With Kreese apparently prison-bound, it’s anyone’s guess how the season will turn out for him. He has proven very hard to beat before, though, so don’t count him out just yet. How he handles being betrayed by Silver, and Silver threatening his onetime prize pupil Johnny Lawrence, remains to be seen.
Johnny, meanwhile, is on the trail of Miguel. That will most likely take both characters to Mexico, where Miguel has travelled in search of his father. A potential hiccup in the plan to make amends with Miguel, though, is that Johnny seems to be building bridges with his son Robby Keene. Robby is all set to accompany Johnny on his trip south of the border? It could take all three characters one step closer to finally washing away all the bad blood between them.
In terms of the students of Miyagi-Do, Eagle Fang, and Cobra Kai, their future is less clear. Daniel has no intention of shutting his dojo, so it seems safe to say the Miyagi-Do kids will still be honing their karate skills. Cobra Kai are also expanding, though it looks like they might be losing some students in season 5. Robby seems to want out, and after All Valley champ Tory Nichols overheard a conversation that proved the tournament was rigged in Cobra Kai’s favor, she might be heading in the direction of defecting from the dojo, too – especially as her and Amanda LaRusso began to bond across the season.
It’s likely Eagle Fang will continue training at Miyagi-Do, considering Johnny will be busy in Mexico for at least part of the season. Whether any of the kids decide to honor the deal with Cobra Kai and quit learning karate entirely is up in the air, though.
One thing that’s for sure is that season 5 will be action-packed. “We’ve just shot season 5. And we ended up in a situation where the finale is, I don’t want to say bigger, but there’s a lot of action going on in our season five finale,” co-creator Hayden Schlossberg told GamesRadar+.
“And so, it’s become that way. And we do see in subsequent seasons, we’re knocking on wood hoping that we can continue past season five, because we didn’t write that as an end,” he continues. “We have another in store. We really do still have some of our biggest fireworks and biggest cannons left. So we know that we have some big, epic things up our sleeve. But it does become like, ‘Okay, how do you top that each season?’ As long as it comes from the place of character, fans will get into it and what we don’t want to do is [where] it just becomes more spectacle than substance. And so that’s the overriding goal.”
If you’re on the lookout for cameos from the wider Karate Kid universe, there might be some to spot after all. “There’s a lot of insanity; if you’re a fan of the franchise, maybe some familiar faces show up, maybe not; there’s going to be a lot of karate,” Hurwitz told Deadline (opens in new tab).
Cobra Kai season 5 plot: What’s going to happen?
Cobra Kai’s season four finale proved to be something of a game-changer, with Terry Silver double-crossing Kreese and getting him arrested.
The arrest for the attack on Stingray effectively shoves him out of Cobra Kai and the planned expansion, as the formerly zen-appreciating Silver returns to his vicious and evil ways.
Silver is a new threat, and unlike Kreese, he doesn’t seem to have as much of obvious weakness. This is made even worse when you consider that, due to their bet over the All-Valley tournament, Miyago-Do is no longer a functioning dojo.
Is Cobra Kai season 5 the final season?
There’s no confirmed season 6 just yet, but series creators Josh Heald, Hayden Schlossberg, and Jon Hurwitz have made it clear that they’re planning on more to come.
“It’s changed at times, but it also hasn’t,” Heald told Collider (opens in new tab). “We still have an endgame plan. We’re still writing beyond season 5. But it’s been fun to bring in those new characters and storylines and let them lead the way sometimes.”
Said Hurwitz: “We’ve never said from the beginning how many seasons there would be. I think we always viewed it as at least six was sort of in our heads, but we’re still figuring out exactly what the length for that landing is for all the reasons that Josh mentioned.”
Speaking to Deadline, Schlossberg indicated the series could even go beyond a potential sixth installment. “We have an end in mind,” he said. “How many seasons it takes to get there, we don’t know. We’re enjoying making it so much.” He added: “If it gets tiring to us, we’ll stop before that; we have a few more seasons already planned out.”
Whether Cobra Kai continues past season 5 remains to be seen, but with season 4 shaping up to be one of Netflix’s most popular series ever, the future looks bright.
Cobra Kai season 4 is streaming on Netflix now. If you’re all caught up.
Thankfully, Daniel has Chozen on side, who isn’t afraid to stand up to him. In one tense stand-off, Silver warns he’s playing with fire, to which he responds he’s gasoline.
Meanwhile, Robby and Johnny are off on a roadtrip to Mexico to track down Miguel after he’s done a runner. But tensions between Miguel and Robby run deep.
