It's no secret that Cobra Kai has not only renewed interest in the original Karate Kid
films but also greatly expanded the lore of the universe, by giving us a new look at some
of the original characters from the films, with one of the characters benefitting from
this viewpoint the most being Johnny Lawrence.
I think that's why so many people enjoy the first season – it switches the roles between
Johnny and Daniel – Johnny was a rich kid from Encino Hills and the top student of Cobra
Kai, but is now a down-on-his-luck adult struggling to find his purpose.
Daniel was a kid from New Jersey who moved to Reseda but is now the owner of a successful
dealership franchise and uses some of Miyagi-Do in his advertising and marketing.
But what if I told you that there was almost a 5th Karate Kid film, and if it had been
made, Cobra Kai would be either very different today or not exist at all?
This is The Karate Kid Movie We Almost Had.
Let's first talk about the premise of this film.
On August 27th, 2020, the day before Cobra Kai Season 1 and Season 2 officially debuted
on Netflix, William Zabka spoke to Collider about Cobra Kai Season 3, what it was like
filming The Karate Kid, and how Pat Morita in his final years pitched William a 5th Karate
Kid film idea.
"I had so many people that had ideas for Johnny Lawrence.
Actually, my favorite one was Pat Morita himself had an idea.
He wasn't done with Miyagi yet, and this is in his last years.
He called me he said, 'BZ BZ, I have a great idea for Karate Kid 5.'
Miyagi's going to die, and he wanted him to have a proper Okinawan burial, but while he's
sick, he saw Johnny Lawrence as being his doctor, and I thought that was interesting.
That was probably the wildest idea I could've imagined, and coming from Pat Morita, it was
awesome."
Now, there's a sidenote I should add here – when looking for this article (as I first
heard this story about 6 months ago), I thought I saw another bit of context adding that Johnny
would've learned Miyagi-Do directly from Mr. Miyagi, which would've helped him through
his own personal struggles at the time, including his marriage.
Perhaps this detail was something someone else speculated or, something that I imagined.
Either way, to think that Pat Morita was pitching an idea like this shows he was not only ahead
of his time, but also saw that Johnny was a well-written character who had a depth to
him, thanks to Zabka's performance (and as all we've seen in Cobra Kai, this is definitely
true).
Here's the big question – why wasn't this film made?
I think one of the most obvious reasons was the lack of interest at the time.
Let's look at a timeline of the franchise: the first Karate Kid film was an enormous
success, and similar to Cobra Kai Season 1, was special because it had a lot of heart
and laid down the groundwork of the universe.
Because of how well it turned out, the producers were anxious to make a sequel, and thus came
Karate Kid Part II.
This film was on a bigger budget and was also a success, which led them to make Karate Kid
Part III, where the franchise started to dwindle.
Robert Mark Kamen originally wanted The Karate Kid Part III to be a prequel where Daniel
and Mr. Miyagi travel to 16th century China in a dream to meet Miyagi's ancestors, and
the film would've had a female protagonist.
The studios didn't like the idea and instead paid Kamen to make a plot similar to the first
film, resulting in what we have now.
The plot would've originally focused more on Kreese, but because Martin Kove had scheduling
conflicts with Hard Time on Planet Earth, Kreese's role was rewritten and Terry Silver
became the lead antagonist.
Despite the wonderful performances of Pat Morita, Thomas Ian Griffith, and Sean Kanan,
the Karate Kid Part III was the least successful both financially and critically.
The last original film of the franchise and the last film to star Pat Morita, “The Next
Karate Kid,” was released in 1994.
This film was not received well critically and financially, barely making any money over
its $12 million budget.
Considering that we didn't get anything Karate Kid-related movie-wise until 2010 (debatably),
the release of the last two films more than likely prevented any interest in this movie
being successful.
Another reason would be that it seemed the actors wanted to put the franchise behind
them, aside from Pat Morita.
Ralph Macchio notably was unhappy during the production of Karate Kid Part III due to the
direction of the story and would pursue other roles, such as Bill Gambini in My Cousin Vinny,
and would go on to be the lead in the 1996 revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without
Really Trying.”
Macchio has also mentioned in interviews that he said no to many Karate Kid sequel ideas
over the years, including one that would reveal that Daniel LaRusso was the cousin of Rocky
Balboa in some sort of crossover.
William Zabka would be typecast in other bully roles, such as Greg Tolan in Just One of the
Guys and Chas Osborne in Back to School.
He wanted to step away from these characters, as he was often hassled in public because
of how good he was at these roles.
He only agreed to appear in the music video for “Sweep the Leg” by No More Kings if
he could write and direct it.
It could be argued that because of his appearance in “How I Met Your Mother,” this also
helped renew interest in the original films and also helped start the momentum for interest
in Cobra Kai as a series when it launched on YouTube in 2018.
As mentioned before, Pat openly embraced the role of Mr. Miyagi.
He often played characters that would be a spoof or homage to his Mr. Miyagi character,
or be cast in similar mentor roles, such as Master Tetsu in American Ninja V, Mr. Yoshi
in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and notably Master Udon in Spongebob Squarepants and one
of my personal favorites - himself in Robot Chicken.
"I thought I smelled failure.
That toilet's not going to unplug itself."
Here's the next big question – would this film have worked?
Honestly, I think it would have depended on a few things.
If the Karate Kid Part III had either been successful (as we know there were cut scenes
and a lot of rewrites) or if the Karate Kid Part III had been the idea that Robert Mark
Kamen originally had, I think Pat Morita's idea would have been a perfect Karate Kid
IV.
If the film was released during the 90s or took place in the early 2000s, it would have
made sense, as Zabka was older by this time and would have been the young doctor Johnny
that Pat envisioned.
I speculate that since Miyagi had saved Johnny's life and Johnny would've been on amicable
terms with Daniel after high school, Johnny would have learned some principles and philosophies
of Miyagi-Do.
Maybe we could've seen Daniel and Johnny train together in Miyagi-Do to honor Mr. Miyagi's
memory and pass on their philosophy to their own students.
We could even have had a conversation with Johnny and Mr. Miyagi where Johnny thanks
him for saving his life, and repeating the famous quote when talking about Kreese: “no
such thing as bad student, only bad teacher.”
Another interesting plot point would have been that though Johnny had moved on from
what happened in high school, Daniel could be reluctant to see Johnny again while he's
accompanying Mr. Miyagi to one of his appointments, and Mr. Miyagi would bring the two together
as they're no longer enemies.
There are so many different ways that this film could've gone but as William said, to
see Johnny and Miyagi team up would've been an amazing sight to see for the franchise.
If this film had come out, would Cobra Kai exist?
This is another question that has crossed my mind, and I would say simply – it depends.
If, for example, one of the plot points of the film is where Daniel and Johnny had buried
the hatchet much earlier than they did in Cobra Kai, it's unlikely that Cobra Kai would've
had an impactful first season.
What would they have focused on?
Unless Johnny had somehow lost his license as a doctor and gone down a spiraling path,
it would have not worked the same way.
Though, if the two had already opened a dojo by this point, we still could have examined
how the new generation of fighters are toughing it out through high school and the conflicts
they faced.
Another factor on depending if this film would've worked or not would be the lack of existence
of Karate Kid Part III as we know it.
If the studio agreed to do the original plot that Robert wanted, there would be no Terry
Silver or Mike Barnes, meaning another big chunk of Cobra Kai lore would not exist today,
given Silver's impact on Seasons 4 and 5.
Not to mention if Karate Kid Part III didn't happen, Daniel and Jessica would've never
met, nor would he be introduced to Amanda, so there's a big possibility that even Sam
and Anthony might not exist either!
Or Robby for that matter if Johnny was a successful doctor and married someone else.
Now, I think Chozen's role wouldn't change much as he still would be the same as he is
today in Cobra Kai, so perhaps that element would be something we still would've seen
in an alternate Cobra Kai, but when you think about it, a lot of the series solely depends
on Johnny's misery and his inability to move on from his defeat at the 1984 All-Valley.
But what if Karate Kid Part III did exist as it does now, and somehow Pat's idea came
out as a 5th film?
Well, I think that still changes things a little bit.
Perhaps Daniel and Johnny would still be teaching together by the time Cobra Kai takes place,
but Kreese would still return to try to convince Johnny to teach Cobra Kai and could have Terry
Silver involved.
However again, Kreese may not have ever returned at all if Johnny never re-opened Cobra Kai,
so again, it all depends on Johnny's inability to move on from the past.
At least Daniel would have met Amanda, and Sam and Anthony would still exist in this
timeline.
Here are my final thoughts on this potential film we had.
Honestly, it would've been cool to see Mr. Miyagi take Johnny under his wing, as there
are countless videos out there on what would've happened if Johnny joined Miyagi-Do right
after the All-Valley tournament (which even some of you viewers have asked me to do but
to be fair, I'm still debating that as there are a ton of videos out there already on this
subject), so I think overall the concept would've been interesting.
How it would've been executed though would have either altered Cobra Kai altogether or
even prevented it from existing, which is nuts to think about.
In a way, it does make me thankful that Karate Kid Part III and the Next Karate Kid do exist,
as the former is a core part of Seasons 3 – 5, and the latter is still borrowed upon
in references and plot points, such as the characters of both Sam and Tory.
Despite them both being the weak points of the franchise (though memorable in some scenes
and aspects), they did give Cobra Kai a foundation to work off of along with the other films
to make the Miyagiverse come to life.
I'm hoping in the future after the final season of Cobra Kai that we will see some spin-offs,
as a Miyagi prequel is something that is needed and also what people have been requesting.
The Big 3 could also pull a Marvel and do a “What If” series on Cobra Kai and show
alternate timelines of certain events taking place, even if Johnny had become a doctor
and did study under Miyagi.
We can only hope and speculate, but it's interesting to know that Pat Morita wanted to play Mr.
Miyagi one last time.
Let me know what you guys think down below – would this film have worked, and if it
was made, would there still be a Cobra Kai?
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