Cobra Kai creators – Picture: Getty Images
First revealed in October 2019, Obliterated is the brand new project from the Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald. Nearly three years on there’s been little news surrounding the project but we’ve learned that the show has completed a move from Warner Brother’s TBS over to Netflix. Here’s what we know so far about the project.
TBS gave a straight-to-series order to Obliterated in the tail end of 2019 but since then, next to no news has been announced for the project. The pitch for the show was a comedy-drama that’s about “an elite special forces team tracking a deadly terrorist network, hell-bent on blowing up Las Vegas.” 10 episodes were announced for the series.
Netflix comes into the story in June 2020 when it announced it had acquired the YouTube Red series, Cobra Kai, and renewed it for future seasons.
Since then, we’ve seen two new seasons of that show released exclusively on Netflix with season 3 in January 2021, season 4 in December 2021, and production has concluded on the upcoming fifth season expected to drop sometime in 2022.
Counterbalance Entertainment produces Cobra Kai which is headed up by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald. Their company has an overall deal with Sony Television which was recently re-upped in late 2021. The trio are also working on The Prince, a new half-hour coming-of-age comedy inspired by the life of Zora Bikangaga, 72 Hours for Sony Pictures, and Ancient Aliens for Legendary.
Cobra Kai. (L to R) Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence in Cobra Kai. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2021
Now we’ve learned the project has completed a move to Netflix and that production is tentatively due to take place in the summer. It follows the news earlier in the week that TBS and TNT were killing all scripted projects.
The series is currently eying a July 2022 production start and is confirmed to be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States.
Bob Dearden (who’s worked on Cobra Kai) and Rowan Wheeler (Born This Way, Netflix’s Human Resources) are also attached to the project.
According to what we’ve learned, the series may have been cut to 8 episodes (down from 10 at TBS) with each episode being around 45-minutes in length.
Obliterated continues to be pitched as 24 meets The Hangover and sees an elite team seeking to stop a bomb from being detonated but will self-inflicted alcohol-related impairments and personal issues get in their way? Time will tell.
The series will focus on Chad McKnight and Ava. Chad is a former soldier who was raised on the action films of the 80s and 90s and compared to Johnny Lawrance in the sense he’s a bit out of touch with today’s youth but loveable all the same. Ava is the leader of the special forces team.
We’ll keep you posted on Obliterated as and when we learn more. In the meantime, let us know in the comment section if you’re excited about the Cobra Kai creator’s next project.
Editors note: this was first published on April 25th but was removed after a request from Netflix.