'Cobra Kai' Season Four Could See the Return of the Most Chaotic 'Karate Kid' Villain

From Esquire

The following contains spoilers for the Cobra Kai Season Three finale.

Thought Cobra Kai peaked with Season Two's school brawl? Yeah. No. How about the final couple episodes of Season Three, which saw the return of Elisabeth Shue as Ali, a needle drop of "Open Arms" for the ages, and an all-out war at Château LaRusso? Frankly, it wasn't only some of the best action we've seen in Cobra Kai—but it rivalled some of the highest moments in the Karate Kid films.

That said, the final moments of Season Three set up a future for the show that'll double its stakes. Mainly: Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence finally, truly team up, merging their karate schools, in one last push to rid the Valley of John Kreese. It'll probably take us all the way until the premiere of Cobra Kai's fourth season to recover from it all. But when you're ready to step back into the dojo, intrepid karate students, here's everything we know about the next season of Cobra Kai so far.

When Will Cobra Kai Season Four Be Released?

Regardless of your affiliation(s)—Miyagi-do, Cobra Kai, or... Eagle Fang?—fear not: We're definitely getting a Season Four of Cobra Kai. Netflix announced that the show would get a Season Four back in October. While we don't know exactly when the new season will drop, rest assured that the Cobra Kai team has been striking away at a script and even has initial plans for filming. In late October, series co-creator Jon Hurwitz tweeted that the writers room for Season Four had ended, meaning that there are at least some people in the world who know how the next All Valley Tournament will shake out. But that doesn't mean we can't speculate the outcome for ourselves.

What Will Cobra Kai season four be about?

We get the main storyline in Season Four flat-out from Kreese: Winner in the All Valley Karate Tournament gets to stay in the martial arts game. Loser leaves town. With the students of Daniel LaRusso's Miyagi-do and Johnny Lawrence's Eagle Fang seemingly teaming up in the Season Three finale, it looks like we'll see an all-out war against Kreese's Cobra Kai in the tournament. And for the first time, we finally have a pretty clear idea of who has landed on the dark side or not. Our heroes include Miguel, Sam, Demitri, and Hawk (!), who'll square up against Tori, Robby, and Kyler. Regardless of winners/losers, it'll all make for some wild battles come karate-time.

Though, next season, it'll look like Cobra Kai might just get the help of a certain billionaire/karate instructor/psychopath: Terry Silver. Turns out, the flashbacks to Kreese's time in Vietnam weren't just for the purposes of telling us how the guy got his karate obsession. It also served as an origin story for his friendship with Karate Kid III villain Terry Silver, who funded the opening of the Cobra Kai dojo in the first place. When Kreese saves his platoon in Vietnam, Silver runs up to him and says, "I owe you man, you saved my ass. Anything you need, I'm there for you, your whole life. You hear me Johnny? Your whole life. I owe you." And what do we see in the closing moments of Cobra Kai's Season Three finale? Kreese make a call for some help. It's most likely Terry on the other end, folks. So, Silver and his chaotic-evil energy could be headed for Season Four of Cobra Kai, the DynoTox CEO potentially returning to Cobra Kai to help Kreese win the All Valley.

One last thought as we head down this long, long road of martial arts—could anyone see Cobra Kai swerving in the Harry Potter direction? Meaning: The Harry Potter series similarly leaned fun/family-friendly in its first three installments. But it all had a hint of some of the darkness down the line, which would be realized with a major death in the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire—and set the grim tone for the rest of the series. With a few PG-13 moments in Season Three of Cobra Kai (we're not over Demitri getting his arm snapped in half), couldn't you see Cobra Kai growing up with its characters and evolving into a little more of an adult watch, just as Harry Potter did? Maybe Season Four actually will see a major character get hurt, even more so than Miguel did at the end of Season Two. This isn't out of the realm of possibility, especially with a guy like Terry Silver around. (The guy made teenage Danny LaRusso karate-chop a dummy made of wood until his appendages bled, people.) Or maybe we'll just watch Danny and Johnny roast each other for eight more seasons. Honestly? We'd love it either way.

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