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SYFY WIRE Cobra Kai

Karate Kid sequel Cobra Kai teaser reveals Johnny still knows no mercy

By George Stark
Cobra Kai Trailer Still

Karate Kid’s sensei is back, but not as we know him. And you can forget about asking which way you should wax on or wax off when cleaning his windows.

A new look at the upcoming YouTube Red television series Cobra Kai finds actor William Zabka reprising his role as the nasty Johnny Lawrence from 1984’s The Karate Kid, flipping the script on the original; now he's the sensei, in charge of his own protégé, and doing things in his own, bullish way.

We all remember the late, great Pat Morita playing the role of Mr. Miyagi, who teaches the titular kid Daniel (Ralph Macchio) karate with patience and poise in the first three movies. But in this follow-up to the classic ‘80s tale, Zabka’s Johnny – who was leader of the vicious gang of Cobra Kai students – has grown up to (surprisingly) be a teacher himself.

There’s no sign of Macchio’s Daniel in this clip, but as we’ve already seen from the first teaser, the pair are set to have a very tense reunion, coming face-to-face in a martial arts studio. We're hoping that Daniel will be bringing back some much-needed balance to Johnny’s strike-first-and-strike-hard approach.

It will be interesting to see Johnny as the semi-protagonist of the story in the new series, considering he was such a little baddie in the original movies. Will Daniel make him see the error of his ways?

Are you excited for this follow-up to The Karate Kid? Give us your comments below.