Cobra Kai creators tease their new Netflix show: "Die Hard meets The Hangover meets 24"
Obliterated is most certainly "not for kids"
Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have teased their new Netflix show Obliterated in an interview with GamesRadar+. It even comes with the ultimate elevator pitch: "Die Hard meets The Hangover meets 24."
Obliterated, starring Nick Zano (Legends of Tomorrow) and Shelley Hennig (Mythic Quest), tells the story of "an elite special forces team who thwarts a deadly threat to Las Vegas." Per Netflix’s official logline – things get decidedly worse for the pair: "After their celebratory party, filled with booze, drugs and sex, the team discovers that the bomb they deactivated was a fake. The now intoxicated team has to fight through their impairments, overcome their personal issues, find the real bomb, and save the world."
It’s worlds away, then, from all-out karate wars and duelling dojos found in Cobra Kai, which has run for five seasons.
"This is not for the kids," Hurwitz laughs. "It harkens back to the work myself, Hayden and Josh [Heald] did earlier in our careers which was exclusively R-Rated comedies." The trio were involved in the writing and production of Harold and Kumar and American Reunion, with Heald also on script duties for Hot Tub Time Machine.
Hurwitz continues, "Obliterated is those huge summer blockbuster R-Rated comedies in serialized television form. It’s not just that, it’s also these big action movies we grew up on… So you mash those two together. We always say it’s Die Hard meets The Hangover meets 24."
It will, however, retain some of the DNA that made Cobra Kai so successful. As Schlossberg says, the "biggest similarity" between the two shows is that the trio are "super involved in the writing of this thing."
Schlossberg adds, "It’s this own universe of characters and we care about a villain’s henchman as much as anybody. So you really get layers and different types of characters and performances.There’s big action in it. In Cobra Kai, it’s martial arts. In Obliterated, it’s gunfire, knives, bombs, missiles; it’s helicopters and creative things getting blown up."
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Obliterated does not have a release date, but you can stream Cobra Kai season 5 now on Netflix.
I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.