Cobra Kai started life as the launch title for YouTube Red before moving to Netflix this summer in advance of its season 3 release. What seemed like a callow IP-grab and 80s-nostalgia bait soon proved itself more. Thanks, in part, to its sharp writing, Cobra Kai earned its existence and moved out of the shadow of The Karate Kid. Creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg have successfully threaded a very thin needle.
How that writing plays with the legacy of The Karate Kid is what we’re going to look at today. While most of us don’t have the privilege of writing the sequels to very successful 80s movies, plenty of lessons can still be taken for your own work and how you manage audience expectations.
Thinking About Your Audience
The Karate Kid is baked into the cultural bedrock at this point. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, the base elements have seeped into the larger conversation. Going into something related to The Karate Kid you have certain expectations. The young kid who needs some structure and guidance and finds it in karate. The wise mentor with sage advice for both fighting and life. An 80s soundtrack. And some sick fights.
What sets Cobra Kai apart from other IP-rehashes is how it navigates and plays with those audience expectations. William Zabka returns as Johnny Lawrence, who takes on the Mr. Miyagi sensei role from the original. But where Miyagi offered wise koans and gentle guidance, Lawrence retains his rough edges and antihero background. The show delights in zigging where an audience might expect them to zag.
The same is true of the choice to position Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso as the antagonist. The easy version of this show would duplicate the beats of the original movie with Daniel following in his mentor’s footsteps. Instead they’ve wound up with a much more interesting antagonist because we’ve so much history with the character and understand what motivates him as much as Johnny.
But for every subversion of what the audience might expect, the show also delivers on what they want. The fight scenes are satisfyingly staged and executed. Underdogs go through training montages and come out more assured and confident. Victories are hard-earned and leave you pumping your fist. Everything one could hope for in a Karate Kid sequel.
In short, the show gives you what you want while also finding specific moments to surprise as well.
Applying to your Own Writing
Even without the specifics of a well-established source material, your audience will still be bringing expectations with them. Whether due to genre, archetypes, or other elements, the audience will pick up on clues as to what your story is like and what similar things they’ve seen before.
The trick for you as the writer is to work through what those expectations are and decide when you’re going to surprise the audience and when you’re going to deliver on what they want. Do both and you’ll be heads above the rest.