'Cobra Kai' creators explain how they turned their obsession with 'The Karate Kid' into YouTube Red's first hit show, and tease season 2

• "Cobra Kai" creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald talk about how their YouTube Red hit show got off the ground.
• It included getting multiple rights holders to agree on the project and convincing Ralph Macchio to come back and play the role that made him a star.

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It was around the time filmmakers Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald started seeing billboards of the lovable character from "Full House," Kimmy Gibbler, around LA for the release of Netflix's "Fuller House" series that they realized an update of "The Karate Kid" could be possible.

The three grew up on the iconic 1984 movie that follows Daniel (Ralph Macchio) overcoming the constant torment of fellow high schooler Johnny (William Zabka) by learning the ways of karate through Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita).

The movie wasn't just the ultimate telling of a kid overcoming a bully, but also showed the importance of respect, hard work, and a killer 1980s soundtrack.

Hurwitz, Schlossberg, and Heald were childhood friends and stayed in touch as they began careers in Hollywood. Hurwitz and Schlossberg launched the successful "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" franchise while Heald was the story creator and one of the screenwriters of the "Hot Tub Time Machine" franchise (the original even starred Zabka).

The idea of continuing to tell the story of the original characters from "Karate Kid" intrigued them, but with the franchise rights owned by Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment production company (which made a "Karate Kid" movie in 2010 starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan), they figured the guys behind "Harold & Kumar" and "Hot Tub Time Machine" wouldn't get a fair shake to make a serious movie that looked at the original guys 30-plus years later.

But then streaming services began making original TV series and suddenly there was a new way of bringing back popular shows and movies that were beloved decades earlier.

"The changes and the evolution of TV led us to think it could work," Schlossberg told Business Insider.

Two years ago, the guys decided to ditch the movie idea and seriously go for a "Karate Kid" reboot as a TV series. The result is YouTube Red's first real hit show, "Cobra Kai," which looks at Daniel and Johnny all grown up and living with the memories of what occurred back in high school and how it's affected them.

But the path to becoming the latest hit streaming series was a gargantuan task that included wooing the multiple rights holders and gaining the trust of Macchio, who for most of his adult life has tried to distance himself from the role that made him famous.