John Kreese

John Kreese is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists of The Karate Kid media franchise, portrayed by Martin Kove. He is introduced in The Karate Kid (1984) and returns in its sequels The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989).

In the original trilogy, Kreese is established as a Vietnam veteran and a deranged karate sensei who founded the Cobra Kai dojo. In the original film, Kreese teaches his class to be aggressive and show no mercy to opponents, which leads to his star student and son-figure Johnny Lawrence to come into conflict with Daniel LaRusso, a peaceful teenager who recently moved to the San Fernando Valley. After Johnny loses to Daniel at the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament, Kreese berates him for his loss and even attempts to strangle him, only stopped by Daniel's sensei Mr. Miyagi. In the third movie, Cobra Kai falls into ruin, and Kreese turns to his best friend Terry Silver to get revenge on Daniel and relaunch Cobra Kai, only for Daniel yet again to triumph.

29 years later, Kove reprised the role of Kreese in the sequel television series Cobra Kai (2018–2025). In the show, Kreese is revealed to have become homeless and unmotivated in the wake of Daniel's 2nd victory, and returns to the Valley after an older Johnny reopens the dojo and manages to win the All-Valley with his new students. Though Johnny initially forgives Kreese for his past transgressions, he exiles him from the dojo after seeing Kreese corrupt his students into becoming more aggressive, leading to Kreese regaining control of the dojo and firing Johnny in turn. With full control of the dojo, Kreese comes into conflict with Johnny and an older Daniel, who has opened his own karate dojo, and even recruits a more docile Terry Silver to help him, only for Terry to become angered with Kreese's growing sympathy for Johnny and Cobra Kai student Tory Nichols and frame him for assault. Kreese is ultimately able to escape from jail despite this and retakes control of Cobra Kai after Terry is defeated by Daniel, aiming to bring the dojo to the Sekai Taikai, the world's greatest Karate tournament.

The character has had a mostly positive reception from critics and is viewed as a quintessential 1980s villain.