'Cobra Kai' star William Zabka compares the show's final season to a film trilogy

William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence in Cobra Kai season 6
(Image credit: Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix)

"Cobra Kai" season 6 is making a bit of streaming history over at Netflix. Unlike recent seasons of fellow popular titles, including "Bridgerton" season 3, "Emily in Paris" season 4 and "Outer Banks" season 4 — all of which followed a two-part release schedule — the sixth and final installment of the "Karate Kid" spin-off series is the streamer's first three-part season release.

The first five episodes of the season dropped back in July, with the second installment arriving on Thursday, November 15 and the third and final edition to come on a to-be-announced date in 2025. 

For "Cobra Kai" fans, that means that, yes, while there is a bit of a wait until we find out how things ultimately shake out with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and the rest of the Miyagi-Do crew, there will be more dojo goodness to go around. Season 6 will see 15 episodes total, up from 10 eps for each of the previous five seasons.

And the three-part rollout adds a fitting sense of grandness to the finale of the long-running martial-arts dramedy, with Zabka comparing the three-part release to a film trilogy.

“The stakes are set at the end of the first five. I think if it was just a movie, it’s a great ending that would beg for a sequel, which fortunately is coming in a few months,” the actor told Tudum.

As viewers already know, the end of episode 5 saw Miyagi-Do's sensei and students make their way to Barcelona for the Sekai Taikai, the world championships of karate. “That takes things to the next level,” co-showrunner Hayden Schlossberg told Tudum.

Schlossberg added that the Sekai Taikai will be "a totally different environment" from previous tournaments featured in the franchise, like the All-Valley: "There’s no crowd watching. This is a karate temple that they’re going to, where the only people in attendance are black belts or karate masters."

As part of that setting switch-up, the second part of the final season will introduce fans to new karate competitors, including Lewis Tan ("Deadpool v. Wolverine", "Mortal Kombat") as Sensei Wolf, Patrick Luwis as Awel Kovacevic and Rayna Vallandingham, in her acting debut, as Zara Malik. They'll join familiar faces like sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), as well as their young dojo fighters like Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), Tory Nichols (Peyton List), Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) and Sam LaRusso (Mary Mouser).

We'll see how things progress in the trilogy-like final season when part two of "Cobra Kai" season 6 hits Netflix on Thursday, November 15 with five brand-new episodes. Tom's Guide will keep you posted on all updates surrounding the next installment of "Cobra Kai," including behind-the-scenes tidbits, casting intel, character descriptions and showrunner insights. In the meantime, you can revisit the first five seasons of the martial arts comedy-drama, as well as the first five episodes of season 6, right now with a Netflix subscription.

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Christina Izzo
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Christina Izzo is a writer-editor covering culture, food and drink, travel and general lifestyle in New York City. She was previously the Deputy Editor at My Imperfect Life, the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York. 

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