In 2018, YouTube released two free episodes of a new show being brought to the platform: Cobra Kai. Following the story of Karate Kid characters Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, 34 years after the first movie, the new series quickly gained traction with fans new and old to the karate-verse.
My mom was only two years old when the first Karate Kid installment was released, and, like many other familiar fans who had grown up with the series, she had been tuning into the show and keeping up with its new releases on YouTube. It wasn’t until the show was moved to Netflix in August 2020 that I finally sat down and watched it. Needless to say, Cobra Kai definitely lived up to the hype!
Now, seven years later, the beloved show has come to an end. Season six was an incredible three-part finale, with the final five episodes released earlier this year on Feb. 13. As fans can attest, it was dramatic, full circle, and a wonderful end to the franchise. That is, until the highly anticipated movie Karate Kid: Legends releases on May 30, 2025.
But aside from the amazing plotline and lovable characters created, the show brought some light to the following big actors in Hollywood: Peyton List, Xolo Maridueña, and Jacob Bertrand. The recent red carpet premiere of the season six finale welcomed back familiar faces, like actors Tanner Buchanan and Mary Mouser, who play Robby Keene and Samantha LaRusso on the show. Grown to be fan favorites to many watching at home, the two co-stars announced some surprising news during the premiere — they’re engaged!
This took the internet by storm, as many fans shared their support and excitement for the unexpected news. After all, the two had never publicly announced a relationship, and the typical ‘Hollywood couple sightings’ rumors didn’t circulate much in the mass media.
Fans even noticed that it was ironic, seeing as their characters in the show dated in season two, then broke up and started dating other characters. However, to some observant fans, including myself, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Dating back as far as five years ago on Mary Mouser’s YouTube channel, the two began openly posting together as ‘best friends,’ but around December 2022, the status of their relationship could be speculated with one particular post of hers showing the two at Disneyland together.
An even more wholesome detail to their romantic story is that the whole cast kept their relationship secret as well. Gianni DeCenzo, who plays Demetri Alexopoulos in the show, recently interviewed Pucker Up, an interview-based podcast, with Joely Live and spoke on the engagement. When asked how long he had been keeping it under wraps, he replied, “They had been together for a while…I don’t know, maybe a couple years?” He then followed up later with, “It’s really cool because again, we’ve been on this show for seven years, and we’ve become like a family, and now our family’s getting married and starting their own families.”
It is pretty sweet that the Cobra Kai team and fans respected the couple’s privacy, but it’s even sweeter to see that having our suspicions confirmed has left fans ecstatic for the young couple. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for the two rising stars, and their amazing celebration photos and posts have only left me wondering: Can you imagine how amazing their wedding will look?