Cobra Kai and The Karate Kid fans are anticipating the sixth and final season of the hit Netflix series—set to premiere on the streaming service on Thursday, July 18—but it won’t be the last time audiences will see Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso.
According to Macchio, the Cobra Kai series will have ties to the upcoming Karate Kid film and not just because he will reprise his role as a legacy character.
Macchio spoke to Collider while promoting Cobra Kai Season 6, the Karate Kid star explained the film’s subtle connection to the series in regards to his character. “I can’t go into too much detail at this early point. That movie’s not hitting until May 30, 2025,” the actor said. “But yeah, it was important to me. Mainly, to me, it was about always being true to LaRusso. I tried to play truth in 1983 when I originated this character, and still always, throughout Cobra Kai.”
“And then the new film, it’s about being honest and truthful to the character and what would motivate any of his actions,” Macchio added. “But what I was able to do is find things from Cobra Kai Season 6 that sort of reference in a way that makes sense if you’ve watched everything but is not just drawing specifically. It helps motivate all the actions, and hopefully, that thread will be seen by the fans in a good way.”
Josh Heald, Cobra Kai series co-creator, previously said that while Macchio will be in the new Karate Kid movie, the creative team was not directly involved.
“The guys and I are not personally involved in the movie,” Heald said. “That’s a Sony feature, we kind of exist in this universe, so as we are wrapping our series, Ralph is actually going to go off to participate and film that movie. But our series doesn’t set up the movie. The movie kind of exists in its own piece of its own universe,” he said.
While The Karate Kid spin-off ends with season six, it will also introduce an arc about Mr. Miyagi. Cobra Kai series co-creator Hayden Schlossberg recently why they decided to add Pat Morita’s iconic character.
“We came at the Mr. Miyagi storyline in Season 6 from a place of trying to understand the past while not having all the answers,” he said. “And it’s very frustrating for Daniel to find out all these secrets about Mr. Miyagi that he had kept from Daniel while not having all the answers at his disposal.”
Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 1 premieres on Netflix on July 18 and Part 2 is set to premiere November 28, 2024. There is also a Cobra Kai fan event happening on July 17 at The Autry Museum in Los Angeles, CA. The event will feature the first two episodes of the final season. The new Karate Kid film will hit theaters on May 30, 2025.
Check out the Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 1 official trailer below.
