Fans riding the Cobra Kai wave of the Karate Kid fandom of late will be thrilled to know that Sony Pictures has dated a new movie to be released on June 7, 2024. The news comes through an announcement of dates listed for upcoming features from the studio, including Madame Web, Kraven The Hunter, and Garfield, to name a few.
Production on the film would mark 40 years since John G. Avildsen’s inaugural 1984 award-winning martial arts drama classic, The Karate Kid, starring Ralph Macchio and William Zabka as high school rivals forced to settle their differences in the All Valley Karate Tournament. The film spawned three more live action sequels featuring Macchio and late actor Pat Morita, with actress Hillary Swank headlining Christopher Cain’s The Next Karate Kid in 1994. Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan would step up for their own revival for director Harald Zwart’s The Karate Kid (2010), ginning up hype for a sequel that never came to pass.
The latest craze now finds Zabka’s character, Johnny Lawrence, shepherding his own story of redemption in Cobra Kai. The show has since landed on Netflix in 2021 after streaming the first two seasons on YouTube Red, and has accrued five seasons, with much of the cast from the previous movies all making appearances, including Elizabeth Shue and Martin Kove (The Karate Kid), Yuji Okumoto and Tamlyn Tomita (The Karate Kid: Part 2), and Robyn Lively, Sean Kanan and Thomas Ian Griffith (The Karate Kid: Part 3); Front and center for the current cast of the new story also include Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Peyton List, Jacob Bertrand, Dallas Young Dupree and Joe Seo, along with Courtney Henggler, Vanessa Rubio, and Alicia Hannah Kim to name a few. A sixth season is also expected.
According to the trades, no cast and crew have been attached to the upcoming Karate Kid film. Stay tuned.
Read more at Deadline.