Summary

• Cobra Kai season 6 faced production delays due to the 2023 strikes and Netflix's delayed renewal.
• Season 6 is the biggest yet with 15 episodes split into three parts, premiering on July 18, 2024.
• Previous seasons were released quickly due to completed episodes before acquisition and a year for production.

After two long years of waiting, Karate Kid movies and features the return of Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso and William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence. Cobra Kai picks up 34 years after the events of the first Karate Kid film and follows Johnny and Daniel's drastically different lives as Johnny is now a handyman and Daniel owns a car dealership.

Over the course of the Netflix show, Johnny reopens the Cobra Kai karate dojo and mentors a group of young outcasts. As a result, Cobra Kai has five (almost six) seasons full of stories under its belt. Sadly, Cobra Kai season 6 is the series' last, and, hopefully, it will be worth the wait.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Ran Into Several Production Hurdles

The 2023 Writers & Actors Strike Played A Part In Season 6's Delay

The two-year hiatus between season 5 and the release of Cobra Kai season 6 began when Netflix delayed the show's renewal. The streaming service waited more than four months to greenlight season 6 after dropping all 10 episodes of season 5. Consequently, the delay set production back a handful of months. Then, the 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes hindered progress on the production of the final season of Cobra Kai even more. Thankfully, writing resumed in late 2023, and filming began in February 2024 before wrapping in June.

Cobra Kai Season 6 Is The Biggest Season

Season 6 Has The Most Episodes

Another factor that contributed to the long wait between Cobra Kai season 6's delay is ultimately very exciting.

Cobra Kai season 6 was also partially filmed overseas in Barcelona, Spain, further prolonging the show's hiatus.

How Previous Cobra Kai Seasons Released So Quickly

Netflix Added The First 2 Cobra Kai Seasons Shortly Before The Premiere Of Season 3

The first five seasons of Cobra Kai seemingly debuted one right after the other, which makes the latest two-year delay so jarring. One year separated seasons 1 and 2; season 3 came one year and a half after the previous season; and less than a year separated seasons 4 and 5, with the same delay between seasons 5 and 6. The past episodes were seemingly released so quickly for a few reasons, including their lesser episode count.

Firstly, the first two Cobra Kai seasons had already been completed and released before Netflix acquired the show. Netflix added those first 20 episodes to its library and released season 3 shortly afterward. As for the other seasons, the crew and cast of Cobra Kai had more than a year to work on them, resulting in a faster turnaround compared to season 6.