Impressed with the continued popularity of Cobra Kai after the premiere of Season 2, YouTube has officially ordered a third season of the series. Written and executive produced by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the series serves as a sequel to the original Karate Kid movie trilogy, bringing back stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka. After several decades, the feud between Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence remains tense, but now viewers can see the story from Johnny's perspective as well when he reopens the Cobra Kai karate dojo.

When Cobra Kai premiered in May of 2018 on YouTube, the series became a smash hit for the streaming service. To watch the entire season, viewers must subscribe to YouTube's Premium service, but the first episode was made available free to watch for everyone. As of now, the episode has over 62 million views, and the compelling pilot led to countless subscriptions for the streaming service. It would also become the sixth-most searched TV series on Google in 2018. Recognizing this immense success, YouTube quickly made the decision to bring viewers back to the Cobra Kai dojo again for a second season.

Season 2 of the hit YouTube series premiered on the service just recently, releasing ten new episodes on April 24. The series picked up directly after the events of Season 1, which brought back Martin Kove as John Kreese in the season finale. Continuing his quarrel with Johnny, Daniel decides to open his own karate dojo as well, naming it Miyagi-Do after his sensei Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita). Like Season 1, the first episode of Season 2 is also free to watch for everyone on YouTube, and as of now, the video has pulled in over 23 million viewers in just over a week's time. Apparently, it's bringing about enough new Premium subscriptions that YouTube is already moving forward with the production of Season 3.

For most fans of the original movies, Cobra Kai serves as the real sequel to the movie trilogy. The 1994 sequel The Next Karate Kid replaced Daniel LaRusso with new fighter Julie Pierce, played by Hilary Swank. Although it featured the notable return of Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, the movie was universally planned upon its release, and seems to have been mostly forgotten to time. In 2010, Jaden Smith starred in a remake of the original movie, with Jackie Chan taking on the role of his mentor. The movie was tremendously profitable and much better received than The Next Karate Kid, but fans have still been clearly hoping to see the original Daniel-san again some day.

In any case, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka will be back at it once again for Season 3 of Cobra Kai. Because Season 2 carries over the same level of quality seen in the freshman season, that's definitely great news for fans of the show. No word yet on when exactly Season 3 will premiere on YouTube, but it will arrive sometime in 2020. This information comes to us courtesy of Deadline.