YouTube is counting on the nostalgia factor to win premium customers away from Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.
The Google-owned service plans to produce a 10-episode half-hour comedy sequel to the 1984 film The Karate Kid. The show will feature the film’s original stars Ralph Macchio (as Danny LaRusso) and William Zabka (as bully Johnny Lawrence) and will debut in 2018.
Entitled Cobra Kai, the series is set three decades after the original film (and, not surprisingly, completely ignores the 2010 remake—and likely 1994’s The Next Karate Kid as well). Johnny, still seeking redemption after his loss at the All Valley Karate Tournament, reopens the Cobra Kai dojo and inevitably comes into conflict with Danny, who has become successful, but is struggling with the loss of Mr. Miyagi (actor Pat Morita, who died in 2005).
It’s a plot that seems to have a lot in common with the 2007 music video “Sweep the Leg” from No More Kings, which focused on a Johnny who could never get over his loss.
Josh Heald (Hot Tub Time Machine) and Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (Harold and Kumar) will write the scripts for Cobra Kai.
Cobra Kai will air on Youtube Red, the subscription arm of the site, which carries a $10 per month charge. Growth has been slow for the unit to date. The Verge, last November, reported it had only gathered 1.5 million paying subscribers. Youtube has not shared any official hard numbers.
Nostalgia might not be a bad way to win over customers, though. Netflix has had substantial success with its reboots of older TV shows, including Arrested Development, Gilmore Girls and Full House.