By Creative Media Times
Columbia Pictures
The original cast of the “Karate Kid” franchise is back, this time in a 10-episode half-hour comedy currently titled “Cobra Kai”, via streaming subscription service YouTube Red. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series premieres in 2018.
YouTube Red outbid streaming giants Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and AMC for the series. On Friday, Susanne Daniels, global head of content for YouTube also announced that the company is ““targeting an 18-49 audience”, indicating the company’s expansion beyond its millennial core users and its growing focus for original content.
The series will reunite original stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka and will be set 30 years after the events of the 1984 “The Karate Kid”. That film launched the career of Macchio, who played the lead Daniel LaRusso in two more sequels until the series was revamped in 1994. Zabka appeared in the original as Johnny Lawrence, the main antagonist to the title character.
Macchio and Zabka will co-executive produce the series along with duo Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who will write the script with Josh Heald. Hurwitz and Schlossberg will direct most of the series.
