Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz is “ready to go back into the dojo” after a tentative agreement between the WGA & AMPTP was announced.
With the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, writers are taking notice of the tentative agreement the Writers Guild of America has reached with the major studios and streamers that may put an end to the near half-year-long strike. The WGA informed its strike captains. “We have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language,” the statement from the negotiating committee read. “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.” Among the first to comment is Cobra Kai creator Jon Hurwitz, who wrote on social media, “Hell to the yeah! Thank you to the WGA negotiating committee! Ready to get back into the dojo! #WGA #CobraKai”
Hurwitz, along with co-creators Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg, were planning to film the sixth and final season of the Sony & Netflix series when the WGA strike became official in May. The WGA also had the support of several actors, many are also writers themselves, as similar issues led to the SAG-AFTRA strike in July. With the WGA strike coming to a potential end, there may be a path for actors to work again. Much of the major issues of both strikes is the archaic and paltry royalties given to artists primarily from streaming, as much of the talent received little to no compensation.
Prior to the advent of streaming, much of the royalties were generated by syndicated runs, particularly if a show exceeded 100 episodes, along with physical media like DVD and Blu-ray. Streaming changed all that as many conglomerates sold exclusive rights with many of the artists shortchanged from the sweetheart deals. It got even worse concerning streaming-exclusive programming as platforms often orphan content outright as a cost-cutting measure, depriving subscribers of options and artists from royalties, especially when there are no plans for a physical home release on disc. Artists from actors and writers also found themselves overworked (and sometimes shortchanged) gambling on a show would see longevity when the season has been cut to less than half the episodes of a network/cable television show. When streamers aren’t trying to turn a profit by selling original programming to FAST services or other AVOD platforms, cancellations are often final, regardless of performance, with so few allowed to seek new homes. Actors and writers also have concerns with Artificial Intelligence – a major factor in the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
Season six of Cobra Kai, which was originally supposed to start filming over the summer of 2023, will see the presumed final chapter of The Karate Kid saga that saw the downfall of Terry Silver’s (Thomas Ian Griffith) empire of Cobra Kai dojos throughout the Valley after his conspiracy was unraveled by best frenemies Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) with a little help from their students and familiar faces in Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) and Silver’s former student Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan). Meanwhile, Daniel and Johnny’s mutual enemy in Cobra Kai’s main founder John Kreese (Martin Kove), fakes his death and breaks out of prison.
Hell to the yeah! Thank you to the WGA negotiating committee! Ready to get back into the dojo! #WGA #CobraKai https://t.co/pWBsPUz638
— Jon Hurwitz (@jonhurwitz) September 25, 2023
Amazing!!! 🫶🥳 But can you guys get back to the dojo just yet??? What about the actors? 😯
— Christian Krogh (@KroghMusic) September 25, 2023
