Why Will Smith Is Listed As An Executive Producer On Cobra Kai

"Cobra Kai" is the best thing to happen to the "Karate Kid" franchise since we first heard Joe Esposito's "You're the Best" in the 1984 original film. This is a legacy sequel done right, a TV show that understood what made the original films so successful and so beloved (even the nearly universally maligned "Karate Kid Part III"), while also carving its own path and identity. Indeed, the appeal of "Cobra Kai" is that it serves as a fantastic reversal of the original movie, with a new generation taking the place of the original characters, a new karate kid who learns to defend himself before having a brief turn to the dark side, and a struggling mentor who learns to embrace balance.

But it also served as the best possible scenario for a continuation of the original trilogy, catching up not only with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) over 30 years after their fateful encounter at the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament but nearly every side character from the trilogy like Johnny's gang from the first film or even bad boy Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) from "Part III." The show turned even the most one-dimensional supporting characters into complex people (mostly) with motivations, flaws, complicated pasts, and ambitions. It turned Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) into one of the best villains of the past few years, and it even managed to redeem the original bad teacher, John Kreese (Martin Kove).

"Cobra Kai" involved nearly everyone from the original trilogy, but if you look at the credits, it also involved an unexpected A-List actor that had never appeared in any of the movies — Will Smith. Given that Smith famously gave up a role that would have featured martial arts prominently in Neo from "The Matrix," it can be surprising for fans to know he's involved in "Cobra Kai" as an executive producer. The reason for that goes all the way back to the 2010 "Karate Kid" remake.

Back in 2010, "The Karate Kid" remake moved the action from the Valley to Beijing as we follow a young kid who gets into martial arts to impress a girl and fight some bullies with the help of an old maintenance man who is a martial arts expert. Only, instead of karate, Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) learns kung fu — despite the title literally being "Karate Kid."

When his son Jaden joined the 2010 remake, Will Smith produced the movie via his production company Overbrook Entertainment. Not only that, but Smith's company acquired the rights to the "Karate Kid" franchise, which they retain to this day. This meant that, when Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg started working on what would become "Cobra Kai" on the defunct YouTube Red streaming platform, they not only had to approach Sony (who owns Columbia which made the original movies) but also Smith's Overbrook for approval (via Business Insider). Originally, the idea was for "Cobra Kai" to live in its own universe.

"We went into that meeting thinking that we would say to him, you can still have the movie universe, and if Jaden wants to do another Karate Kid feature, you can still do that, but like Marvel, there's now a TV show and the movies," Hurwitz told Business Insider. In the end, they managed to place the show on the same continuity as the original movies.

This, of course, only became a problem when, right as "Cobra Kai" was nearing its end, Sony Pictures announced a new "Karate Kid" movie in "Karate Kid: Legends" which would serve as a continuation of not just the movie/"Cobra Kai" universe but even the 2010 remake. The result was rather messy, and in a hugely disappointing move for fans, completely ignored Jaden Smith's Dre Parker.