Cobra Kai Star Ralph Macchio Reveals Karate Kid Cinematic Universe Plan With Origins, Prequels and Spinoffs

The highly-anticipated fifth season of Cobra Kai is hitting Netflix next week, and the trailer promises a lot of fun and excitement. The new season of The Karate Kid sequel series teases Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in their most vulnerable position yet now that Terry Silver’s Cobra Kai empire has expanded, and his victory at the tournament forced Miyagi-Do to close its doors. Macchio and Zabka recently had a chat with ComicBook.com‘s Chris Killian about the new season, and Macchio teased a potential “Karate Kid Cinematic Universe.” 

“The thing that’s been created, there’s kind of this Karate Kid Cinematic Universe now where Cobra Kai is, you know, at the center of that and when that day does come in for a landing, there are other areas to draw from,” Macchio teased. “I mean, whether it’s … Is there a Miyagi origin story? Is there a Cobra Kai prequel before The Karate Kid? Is there spin-offs with some of the young cast of these characters? Who knows? But we’re not done as long as we’re given the opportunity to really bring it in. As long as it evolves organically, these guys that write the show really have their finger on the pulse of that.” 

Macchio added, “There’s stuff that they wrote in Season 3 that didn’t happen until Season 4 ’cause there wasn’t any more room in Season 3. There’s stuff that was in Season 5 that we know we shot that is being held for the future if we get that green light, so there’s more to come, we hope.”

The final scene of Cobra Kai’s fourth season saw Daniel reuniting with Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), his former rival, with the hope that they can take down Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and his dojo. Following the debut of the fourth season, Cobra Kai co-creator Hayden Schlossberg spoke with ComicBook.com and explained what that surprise cameo could mean for Season 5.

“When Daniel went to Okinawa [in Cobra Kai Season 3], we saw that Chozen had lived this life of shame, coming off the events of Karate Kid II,” Schlossberg explained. “And that Daniel coming to Okinawa gave him an opportunity to redeem himself in his eyes. And we always felt that he showed him a couple moves, but he’s always going to feel that responsibility to help Daniel.”

Cobra Kai Season 5 is set to debut on Netflix on September 9th.