How Cobra Kai Figured Out The Recipe To Revive A Tired Old IP – Looper

As is typical for present-day reboots of old IP, the aged legacy characters in “Cobra Kai” are counterbalanced by a brand new crop of youngsters. What sets the young cast of “Cobra Kai” apart from, say, the younger characters in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is the depth and attention they’re granted.

One of the fiercest rivalries in “Cobra Kai,” for instance, is between original “Karate Kid” lead Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio)’s daughter Sam LaRusso (Mary Mouser) and Cobra Kai Dojo wunderkind Tory Nichols (Peyton List), both of whom alternately garner viewers’ sympathy and disdain. Mohawked karate prodigy Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) is another standout, as he finds himself at first newly empowered to fight back against his bullies before eventually becoming a bully himself.

While the likes of Daniel and the conniving Cobra Kai founder John Kreese (Martin Kove) are integral to these storylines, the teens’ lives are not in service of these legacy characters, but merely complicated by their involvement. Sam, Tory, Hawk, and their fellow young cast members, then, are the raison d’être for “Cobra Kai,” which succeeds as a teen karate soap opera first and foremost, and a continuation “The Karate Kid” second. The eventual involvement of say, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) works not just because he’s a familiar face, but because viewers don’t want him to derail the lives of the kids at the show’s heart.