They are back! Ralph Macchio and William Zabka who played rivals Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence respectively in the classic 80’s martial arts flick, The Karate Kid have reunited on the set of what can be described as the true sequel to the original Karate Kid trilogy (let us forget about the Hillary Swank version or the remake that was about kung-fu and not karate).
Check out the sequel set picture!
Entertainment Weekly released a behind-the-scenes image of the two men smiling and clasping hands on the Atlanta set. It is an image that fans of the trilogy probably never realized that they will see decades after Karate Kid III was released in cinemas.
Details on the sequel
The sequel though won’t be in the form of a movie, but instead will be a ten-episode television series with a brand new title, Cobra Kai. Fans of the original films will remember that Cobra Kai was the name of the karate dojo to which Johnny belonged to, which makes it the headquarters of the bad guys.
So why name the series after that? Macchio says that it was because the series won’t be centered on Daniel alone, as half of it will be about Johhny. “If The Karate Kid was Daniel’s story, Cobra Kai is equal parts Daniel and Johnny’s story. Also because this is a series and not a movie, we really wanted to reimagine how the story was told. Changing the name made sense as part of that,” he explains.
The series will be set 30 years after the pivotal All-Valley Karate tournament wherein the two men faced off for the first time. We’ll find that our hero Daniel has made a good life for himself with a family and a big business, the number one car dealership in the Valley.
Johnny would be the opposite, as he is now a heavy drinker living in Reseda who is doing the odd job here and there. When the two meet again, their rivalry is reignited and Johnny chooses to re-open his old dojo. Of course the late Pat Morita will not be able to reprise his role as the old sage Mr. Miyagi. This has been written to the story as Daniel struggles to come to terms with life without his mentor and father-figure.
There are new characters that will be introduced in the series, led by Mom‘s Courtney Hengeler who will be playing Daniel’s wife and business partner, Amanda. I’m kind of disappointed that this wasn’t Elizabeth Shue’s Ali or Tamlyn Tomita’s Kumiko, but still maybe one or both of these actresses could guest star in an episode or two.
Then there are Daniel’s children, Designated Survivor‘s Tanner Buchanan will play the son, Robbie, and Freakish‘s Mary Mouser will play the daughter, Samantha. Meanwhile Xolo Maridueña of Parenthood will portray Miguel Diaz, the son of an immigrant, who will be a student at the Cobra Kai dojo.
It’ll be interesting to see what the dynamics with the next generation will be. Will it flip, as Daniel’s children bully Miguel, or will there be a sort of romantic pairing with Samantha? Also is Daniel set to be an anti-hero figure with Johnny becoming more like Miyagi to his students?
We’ll have to wait and see. Cobra Kai is set to debut on Youtube Red on 2018.
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