Three new trailers for Cobra Kai introduce audiences to the YouTube Red series’ trio of new karate kids. More than 30 years after The Karate Kid became the feel-good hit of 1984, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka return to reprise the characters of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, respectively. Previous trailers teased the resumption of Daniel and Johnny’s epic rivalry, which rekindles in the new series after Lawrence returns to re-open the Cobra Kai dojo.


Lawrence in the new series is a down-on-his-luck guy who looks for redemption by bringing back Cobra Kai. The plot turns the original movie on its head by having Lawrence take on the Mr. Miyagi role, becoming a mentor to a young bullied kid (Xolo Maridueña) not that different from Daniel in the original movie. Daniel meanwhile has become a successful businessman, but when he learns Lawrence is back in the neighborhood, he gets himself ready to throw down one more time.


In addition to Johnny and Daniel, Cobra Kai also introduces three new young characters who for various reasons all end up involved with karate. The characters now get their own previews in a trio of just released trailers. In the one seen above, we meet Miguel (Maridueña), the bullying victim who needs Johnny to become his sensei so he may learn the ways of karate and deal some pain back to the kids making his life miserable. Of course, Johnny does not go easy on Miguel as we see. Johnny may be sensei now but his style is nothing like gentle Mr. Miyagi. In another pair of clips seen below, we meet Daniel’s karate fighting daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) and Johnny’s rebellious son Robby (Tanner Buchanan).

Possibly the best moment in the new clips comes when Johnny “cures” Miguel’s asthma by slapping his inhaler out of his hand. That’s probably not the doctor-recommended method for treating asthma, but whatever works! Meanwhile, Robby seems to have some serious issues with his dad. Somewhat deliciously, Robby reminds Johnny to his face that his old enemy Daniel ended up a winner while he ended up a loser. It seems that crane kick back in 1984 set Johnny’s life on a bad path he never managed to correct. Which actually makes Johnny somewhat of a tragic character.


As we see in the Robby clip, the tone of Cobra Kai is a little more adult than the PG-rated original Karate Kid. The new series clearly means to go grittier – with more swearing – than previous Karate Kid movies. But how will this harder edge go down with parents who might want to watch Cobra Kai with their kids and relive some of that old Karate Kid spirit? In another interesting move, Cobra Kai‘s 10 episodes will only be 30 minutes each – sitcom length instead of drama length. The show is described as “comedy-drama” so it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s a lot of jokiness to the trailers.