The Coolest ‘Karate Kid’ Easter Eggs in ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 3
The following post contains SPOILERS for Cobra Kai Season 3.
All you need to enjoy Cobra Kai is a Netflix subscription and basic understanding of the premise of The Karate Kid — underdog teenage transplant to Los Angeles (Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso) befriends his apartment building’s maintenance man, who teaches him karate and helps him fight back against the bullies who make his life miserable (particularly William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence). If you know The Karate Kid franchise well, though, there’s a whole extra layer to the show, because the series has been filled from the very beginning with tons of subtle references and Easter eggs to the movies: Soundtrack choices, lines of dialogue, and even specific costumes are used to evoke the original films and underline the show’s themes about decades-old grudges and the eternal struggle within everyone between right and wrong.
Cobra Kai’s third season deepens the series’ connection to the old Karate Kid movies with appearances by several major figures from the franchise, a couple surprise cameos, a few teases for what’s to come in Season 4, and at least one retcon that forces us to rethink what we know about a major character’s history. Here are 10 of the coolest Karate Kid Easter eggs in Cobra Kai Season 3.
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