'Our Cobra Kai Experience Came In Handy’: Obliterated's Creators Have A Lot Of Experience With Action, But Also Had To 'Unlearn' A Bit For Their New Netflix Series
From clean and crisp martial arts to wasted and wild action.
Other than the creators being the same, Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz and Josh Heald’s new show Obliterated couldn’t be more different from their hit series Cobra Kai. However, one thing these two shows do have in common is their intense and incredible action sequences. So, when CinemaBlend traveled to Las Vegas to speak with the co-creators of the aforementioned shows, we had to ask about their experience filming action on both, and it was revealed that while their experience on the Karate Kid spin-off “came in handy,” they also had to “unlearn” what they knew to make their latest series.
While we’ve been seeing the cast of Cobra Kai do incredible martial arts for five seasons, when Obliterated premieres on the 2023 TV schedule, we’ll get to see a special ops team attempt to disarm a nuclear bomb using their military training. Both groups are highly trained in combat, and when Schlossberg and his collaborators started working on their latest project, having the experience from their martial arts show really paid off. During our interview about Obliterated, Hayden Schlossberg said:
However, while all this was super helpful, especially when it came to shooting Obliterated’s hand-to-hand combat, the team also had to “unlearn” some of their action expertise. That’s because, unlike in Cobra Kai – which is a family-friendly show – Obliterated’s cast is totally, for lack of a better term, obliterated when they’re trying to take down the enemy. That means all the stunts are a lot sloppier, sillier and R-rated. With that in mind, Schlossberg told me:
He makes such a great point. When you tune into Season 1 of Obliterated, you are going to get action that is totally different from Cobra Kai on so many levels. Yes, the hand-to-hand combat is comparable in some ways, but this show is not about kids and martial arts. It’s about a special ops military team who is highly trained, but also very drunk, high, and hungry. The weapons are different, the tactics are different, and the state of mind is very different in a super fun way.
So, while we know what to expect action-wise for the upcoming sixth season of Cobra Kai, when it comes to Obliterated, you’re guaranteed stunts at the same level of excellence, but it will 100% be very different. If you want to compare the action of both shows, you can stream both Cobra Kai (which is one of Netflix’s best series) and Obliterated (which premieres on November 30) with a Netflix subscription.
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Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.
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