Turbo Boost! Knight Rider Movie Coming From Cobra Kai Creators

What if I told you that once a week, the entire country would gather around their TVs to watch David Hasselhoff join forces with a talking car powered by a sentient A.I. named “K.I.T.T.” to fight crime and go on adventures? No, it wasn’t a fever dream, it was 80s! The show was called Knight Rider with Hasselhoff rocking an afro and playing the lead role as Michael Knight. I was hooked as a kid, and now it looks like my favorite show might make a comeback on the big screen.

Knight Rider Movie in the Works

A recent story from The Hollywood Reporter claims that Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald are in talks with Universal Pictures to write and produce a Knight Rider movie. If those names don’t sound familiar to you, this is the same trio of creatives behind the hit Netflix show Cobra Kai. So, this team knows a thing or two about reviving IP from the 80s.

If you’re still doubtful that a concept created in 1982 could work 43 years later, just take a look around. Depending on where you live, you can go outside right now and see completely autonomous vehicles ferrying people across the city. You also can’t throw a rock these days without hitting something that’s powered by A.I. I’m exaggerating obviously but you get my point. Not only can Knight Rider be relevant today, but our current landscape basically proves the show was ahead of its time.

Now, I’m not saying that the story will be any good, but at least the premise isn’t nearly as ridiculous as it sounded in the 80s.

What Car Will Be the New K.I.T.T.?

It can arguably be said that even more important than picking the right actor for Michael Knight is picking the right car to be K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand). In the original show, K.I.T.T. was a modified 1982 Pontiac Trans-Am which helped slingshot the car to iconic status when the show became a hit. To this day, fans still build screen-accurate replicas of the Trans-Am version of K.I.T.T. out of love for the show.

I say Trans-Am “version” because this film is not the first time an attempt was made to revive the Knight Rider IP. A Knight Rider “sequel” TV show was developed and aired in 2008 with a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 taking over as the new K.I.T.T.

The Mustang version of K.I.T.T. had the ability to transform into a F-150 truck, E-150 van, Ford Flex, and even a Crown Victoria. Holy product placement Batman! As you might have guessed, the show wasn’t well received and only lasted one season with 17 episodes and a TV movie.

Perhaps this movie will see Knight Rider return to General Motors and go with a C8 Corvette-based K.I.T.T.? The ‘Vette is already an iconic vehicle in its own right, and it just looks damn cool. It’s also inexpensive enough that a major movie production can buy several of them for stunts, jumps, camera rigs, etc. In my opinion, the Corvette is the front runner for the most likely candidate, but the creative team can always go in a different direction.

Will The Knight Rider Movie Be Good?

If Cobra Kai is any indication, the Knight Rider movie could have just the right mix of action and 80s-inspired cheesiness to make it a delight for audiences. Though, that is a tricky balance to strike and we’ve seen it go wrong before. Either way, the nostalgia is too strong for me to not give this movie a shot if it gets made.

I should be impartial, but I have no problem stating for the record that I’m rooting for it to be great. Remember, Knight Rider isn’t the only vehicle-based action IP that Universal owns. Can you imagine a Knight Rider, Fall Guy, Airwolf, Fast & Furious shared cinematic universe? I sure can and I want that in my eyeballs immediately.