Cobra Kai Season 5's Karate Kid Connections Explained By Co-Creator

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Cobra Kai season 5’s The Karate Kid connections are explained by the show’s co-creator Hayden Schlossberg. Cobra Kai season 4 streamed on Netflix beginning on December 31, 2021 and was another huge win for the streamer. The wait for season 5 will thankfully be a short one as Cobra Kai is set to return to Netflix in September 2022.

Cobra Kai of course draws its inspiration from the 1984 hit film The Karate Kid and its sequels. But far from just rehashing the movies, the Netflix show indeed expands upon the world introduced all those years ago by director John G. Avilden’s feel-good underdog movie. Part of that expansion of course involves exploring a new generation of characters who are introduced to karate by the original movie’s rivals Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). It also involves those same young characters getting wrapped up in old grudges while simultaneously trying to find their own way in the world, creating conflicts that are inevitably worked out via epic karate matches.

Related: Cobra Kai S5 Is Exactly What Karate Kid 3's Alternate Ending Would Be

Whether those karate matches take place in school, on the streets or in actual rules-governed tournaments, Cobra Kai continues to mix martial arts and life lessons in audience-pleasing ways. Speaking recently to Variety about how the show manages to achieve its unique blend of elements, co-creator Schlossberg got into how he and the writers execute the tightrope act of making something new while still paying tribute to the original Karate Kid. Schlossberg says it’s “fun” to expand the universe by bringing in new characters but he and his fellow writers always start out by returning to the story’s origins. “The Bonsai tree grows,”