The new Karate Kid movie has been pushed back to May 2025, allowing Cobra Kai season 6 to release first – and this seemingly proves a popular theory.
The new Karate Kid has been pushed back to a 2025 release, and this seems to confirm a popular theory about the upcoming final season of Cobra Kai. Both the movie and TV show are spinoffs from the 1980s The Karate Kid movies, focusing on the characters decades after the fateful All-Valley match between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. The 2025 Karate Kid movie was made possible by the massive success of Cobra Kai, but apart from the involvement of actor Ralph Macchio, it has so far been unclear how both stories will connect.
Since Macchio’s The Karate Kid movies came to their conclusion, there have been several spinoff or reboot movies, like Hilary Swank’s 1994 The Next Karate Kid and Jackie Chan’s 2010 The Karate Kid movie. However, neither was as successful as Cobra Kai. The Netflix series, which began on YouTube in 2018, takes Johnny Lawrence’s perspective, and this seems to have been the ticket to enticing audiences back to the Miyagiverse. Now, with Cobra Kai coming to a close with season 6, a new Karate Kid movie is on the way, but it has faced some delays.
The New Karate Kid Movie Being Delayed Proves It Needs Cobra Kai Season 6 To Set It Up
Though it was previously announced that Karate Kid would be released on December 13, 2024, the movie has now been pushed back to May 30, 2025 (via Screen Rant). The reason given by Sony is that filming and release delays of Cobra Kai have made a 2024 release impossible for Karate Kid. The Netflix series’ final season is still expected to hit the streaming service in 2024, though, based on this news, it likely won’t be until later in the year. Though this is disappointing, the fact that Cobra Kai season 6 is a prerequisite for the new Karate Kid movie provides some significant hints about what will come.
Ever since the announcement of a Karate Kid movie starring Macchio and Chan from The Karate Kid (2010) was on the way, it has been theorized that the plot of this movie would be set up by Cobra Kai season 6. This would likely involve Chan’s character, Mr. Han, appearing in the final installment, thus allowing him to meet Macchio’s Daniel and create a connection between the 2010 movie and Cobra Kai for the upcoming Karate Kid to build from. Since the movie can’t proceed until Cobra Kai streams, this theory seems to be confirmed.
Delays Could Be Owed To Ralph Macchio’s Busy Schedule
While it’s likely that the news about Karate Kid’s delay means that it happens after Cobra Kai in the chronology (and will, therefore, piggyback off its predecessor), it’s also possible that there is a more technical reason. As the common denominator between the two spinoffs, Macchio will obviously be involved with filming both Cobra Kai season 6 and Karate Kid. The upcoming film will bring his character together with Chan’s Mr. Han, as they both work together to teach a new titular karate kid, a character named Li Fong, played by Ben Wang (American Born Chinese).
Since Macchio is a main character in both Cobra Kai and 2025’s Karate Kid, the latter’s delay could be due to his filming schedule with the former. The movie might have just been pushed back to allow Macchio to finish his previous obligation, and there may still be no reference to Chan’s Mr. Han or our new Li Fong in Cobra Kai season 6. Still, these delays can provide significant hope regarding potential cameos in Netflix’s upcoming installment.
Why Cobra Kai Season 6 Should Set Up The Upcoming Karate Kid
Aside from giving fans the Chan cameo they have been asking for, there are other reasons why it would be wise for Cobra Kai season 6 to set up Karate Kid. Despite Chan’s beloved status as an actor, 2010’s The Karate Kid didn’t live up to the original movies in the same way Cobra Kai did. Johnny Lawrence’s story breathed new life into the franchise, and the upcoming spinoff movie proves that Sony hopes to keep this momentum going. Still, for another movie featuring Mr. Han to be a success, prospective audiences will need to be assured that it will be as good as Cobra Kai.
Once this is done, it will be far easier for audiences to merge these two worlds in their minds…
Prior to the news about 2025’s Karate Kid movie, there seemed to be no connection between the 2010 movie and the rest of the Miyagiverse. The film was treated as a reboot rather than a typical sequel or spinoff, and the parallels between the story indicated that Mr. Han and Dre existed in a separate cinematic universe. Though it’s exciting to know this isn’t the case, it won’t be believable unless Cobra Kai season 6 creates a more explicit connection. Once this is done, it will be far easier for audiences to merge these two worlds in their minds, thus allowing themselves to smoothly transition into Karate Kid’s new story.
