Cobra Kai shares first look of three-part final season

Much like the actual Karate Kid, Cobra Kai is something of an underdog success story. The show went from a curious spin-off premiering on “YouTube Red” to a mega-hit Netflix original. Now, the series will see out its victory lap with the sixth and final season, which—along with a new teaser and some first-look images—Netflix announced today would be premiering in three parts, for some reason. The series will drop batches of five episodes at a time, starting on July 18, continuing on November 28, and concluding sometime in 2025.

We’ll circle back on that, but first, the new teaser, which features, as you’d expect, a lot of karate. “Picking up with Cobra Kai eliminated from the Valley, our senseis and students must decide if and how they will compete in the Sekai Taikai—the world championships of karate,” the season synopsis reads. The kids are now training at the backyard Miyagi-Do Karate, and taking their skills out to the real world. Which is good, because John Kreese is back in the mix being typically menacing.

Fans will no doubt be happy to return to the dojo, but Netflix’s strategy to juice as much as they can out of its biggest shows by dropping them in “parts” is getting seriously old. Netflix execs say they’re loyal to the binge method, and yet the streamer’s antics more and more resemble traditional television, but worse. If you’re going to break up the episodes, why not just commit to the full experience and release them once a week? Or how about just make another full season of television if you’re so determined to air episodes in 2025? The answer is likely to make more money while paying less, but it’s a puzzling experience for the audience.

Anyway, you can check out some more first-look images from Cobra Kai’s final season below, which feature sneak peeks of what Daniel (Ralph Macchio), Johnny (William Zabka) and their students are up to. And get ready for (some of) the last episodes to premiere this summer.