What was once speculated to be a simple cash grab from a nostalgic set of 80s movies, surprised
everybody with a lovable cast of characters, humorous and fun writing, and a captivating
story that draws you in almost immediately.
Let's dive into one of the most successful revived stories in film history.
This is the Cobra Kai Iceberg.
The sacred vaults During the original Karate Kid shoot, the late director John G. Avildsen
had shot hours of tournament footage from different angles, that was not used before.
The crew behind the Cobra Kai show was aware of this fact and they eventually went to the
old studio vault and looked for those scenes.
Fortunately, they recovered lots of never-before-seen clips and angles which they were then able
to use into the series through flashback scenes.
One of them includes Zabka's real life mother, who was in the stands and visible in some
of the different angles, unseen until 2018.
As for the iconic Crane Kick, at least three unseen angles of that kick exist in the found
footage.
Video games The Karate Kid movies back in the days had two games, which were based on
the first and second movies specifically.
Thus, it was only natural that Cobra Kai got a video game adaption too, which is called
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues.
The game was released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
It was met with average reviews and had to be developed remotely from the houses of employees
due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
There's an even less successful game based on the show too, called Cobra Kai: Card Fighter
which was released on the iOS and Android mobile platforms.
As the name implies, it's a collectible cards game.
The limited success of these games is not surprising since the show has its own audience
and is not very mainstream - that, and the fact that the games just aren't that good.
There is an interesting story about the console video game though, as the creative director
and executive producer of the game had not watched the show until he got the opportunity
to pitch a Cobra Kai game.
Then, he wanted to watch a few episodes to get into the right headspace for the game
and he liked the show so much that he ended up binging almost all of it right away.
And the team watched episodes so many times afterwards that they got attached to some
of the side characters, which is why they have more screen-time in the game compared
to the show itself.
The Miyagi-verse Cobra Kai takes place in what the creators call 'Miyagi-verse', which
means that any fictional character that has interacted with the iconic Mr. Miyagi is a
part of this universe, which includes all of the characters of the original movies,
the TV show itself, and the movie focusing on Julie Pierce that spun-off from the original
trilogy.
Going with the logic, the Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith starring The Karate Kid movie
is not canon to the Miyagi-verse, as it served as a remake of the original movie rather than
a sequel or spin-off.
Real-life illness In the second season of Cobra Kai, Johnny briefly reunites with his
fellow Cobra Kai members, minus Dutch.
They party with their friend Tommy who is dying from cancer in the show, which was certainly
a heartfelt moment from the show.
Tommy eventually dies and ends up in a body bad, and it seems to be a reference to the
infamous quote from the final match between Daniel and Johnny in the Karate Kid, which
says "Get him in a body bag!".
Unfortunately, the actor who played Tommy, Rob Garrison, died from kidney failure in
September 2019 - which was just a few months after his appearance in Season 2 of the show.
Archived Although the series has tons of original cast members coming back, no matter how old
they are today - there are many who are only present through archival footage from the
film series, which serves as flashbacks.
These actors are mainly Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, Chad McQueen as Dutch, Israel Juarbe
as Freddy Fernandez, Danny Kamekona as Sato Toguchi, Nobu McCarthy as Yukie, Robyn Lively
as Jessica Andrews, and Sean Kanan as Mike Barnes.
Be careful what you wish for The saying 'be careful what you wish for' happens to Johnny
not once, but twice.
At first, he wishes he could have a dojo full of students but all that does is bring him
nerds and losers who can hardly fight.
Then, he wishes to turn them into badass fighters and this happens at the cost of them becoming
arrogant jerks that remind him of himself from the past.
And not only this, but John Kreese comes back in his life as a result of this too - which
is more stress than he could have hoped for.
It's a hilarious irony of life and something that fans point out often.
Technologically impaired At the beginning of the third episode of season 2, Johnny gets
an old Dell laptop with Windows XP.
First of all, amazing nostalgia in a show that already is about the glory days of old!
However, every time he opens a new application or presses the Start button, the laptop emits
a beeping sound.
This sound is in fact not something that any real computer makes and is just simply a random
sound design error.
But it's possible that it's more of a reference than an error, as the aforementioned beeping
sounds are in fact sampled from the popular strategy game Command & Conquer.
TMNT vs Cobra Kai Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is no stranger to cross-overs and the turtles
have even met Batman in one of his comics.
However, what you normally wouldn't expect to see is that there was a collection of action
figures called the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Cobra Kai' that features a set of four
action figures that come in pairs, with an opponent for each of them picked officially
by the manufacturer.
Donatello is going up against Johnny Lawrence, Michaelangelo is fighting Daniel LaRusso,
Raphael is fighting John Kreese, and Leonardo is fighting Miguel Diaz.
There was also a collaboration with The Loot Company through which boxes contained different
types of apparel and merchandise related to the show, and several Cobra Kai skins made
an appearance in the popular game Fortnite as well.
Frienemies In the Karate Kid movie and even Cobra Kai, Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso
were fierce rivals, especially because of how much of a bully Johnny was in his youth.
However, in real life, the actors who portray the two characters, Ralph Macchio and William
Zabka, had became friends right after the original Karate Kid movie was completed and
became a success.
Their friendship became even stronger in 2005 according to Ralph Macchio, who says it was
after the actor who portrayed Mr. Miyagi, Noriyuki Pat Morita passed away.
Youtube Premium Cobrai Kai was initially picked up by YouTube Originals and was meant to be
watched by their Premium users.
Despite YouTube Premium not being that successful of a service in general, Cobra Kai found great
success on the network.
Eventually, it caught Netflix's attention and they purchased the rights of the series
in 2020, which included the unaired season 3 as well.
As soon as the show went to Netflix, it found great success and even remained on the top
10 most watched shows for a while every time a new season came out.
Continuity error In the 8th episode of season 2, Sam's birthday is established as October
14th, 2002 - which can be seen when Daniel goes through a scrapbook that points out Sam's
first birthday takes place on October 14, 2003.
However, that would make her 14 in the first episode of season 1.
But in episode 6, when Daniel tries to get Sam to spar with him, the dialogue establishes
Sam as 16 years old when she says "8 years ago, I was 8".
This would make her birthday as 2001 and it does make more sense if Sam was 15 in season
one, because she'd be too young to have a learner's permit otherwise since she agrees
to take Yasmine to school in episode 2.
Daniel saves the day In the third episode of season 1, Daniel busts down the door when
he finds Kyler taking Sam into a classroom.
He tries to warn Sam that Kyler is a bad person, but Sam ignores his warning and leaves in
anger because he broke his promise of not embarrassing her.
But on the other hand, it is heavily implied that Kyler was planning to have sex with Sam
at any cost, which means even rape was in consideration on his mind.
Firstly, Kyler texted Sam that he will give her something 'BIG' at the school dance and
Johnny had already told him that Kyler and his gang was picking on teens half his size.
Then furthermore, there is dialogue with Kyler later on where Brucks says "You had her in
the palm of your dick".
And finally, there's the fact that Kyler does end up groping Sam in a dark movie theater
in the next episode anyway.
So, Daniel in fact saved Sam from sexual assault, which is something many viewers ignored on
their first watch.
Brotherzoned in real life Xolo, who played Miguel, revealed in an interview that before
the staff filmed his kiss with his co-star Mary Mouser, who played Samantha - Mouser
told him that she prefers not to kiss someone for the first time on camera and it would
be better if they kissed before the scene has to be filled to get rid of any "heebie-jeebies".
Mouser felt nervous and popped breath mints, but when he was about to kiss her, Mouser
whispered "Xolo, I'm nervous, you are like a brother to me".
This, of course, made things very awkward for Xolo and frankly it's far worse than having
to kiss on-camera for the first time.
In contrast to this, Xolo did end up briefly dating Hannah Kepple during the production
of season 2, who plays the role of Moon in Cobra Kai.
Fall from grace In Cobra Kai, Johnny lives in the Reseda Heights apartments.
Both the apartment complex and its location is very similar to Daniel Larusso's apartment
complex in the first Karate Kid movie.
Even the paint and coloring on the lettering is similar, so Johnny's apartment is meant
to resemble Daniel's apartment on purpose.
The reason behind this is to show how far Johnny has fallen from grace, since being
poor was one of the reasons for which Daniel faced discrimination in the past whereas Johnny
was from a better part of LA in the original movie.
Daniel is the real villain theory The story of the original The Karate Kid was pretty
straightforward.
A poor kid called Daniel moves into a new neighborhood and is bullied by a jerk and
his friends for trying to fit into their community.
However, many fans jokingly and even seriously believe that the true antagonist of the movie
was in fact Daniel, not Johnny.
And this theory is further strengthened by a video essay on YouTube by J. Matthew Turner.
So, how is Daniel the villain?
Well, as soon as Daniel moves in, he tries to make a move on Johnny's ex who Johnny is
still trying to reconcile with.
Then, Johnny doesn't immediately attack Daniel at all yet Daniel on the other hand keeps
trying to pick a fight with him and even attacks one of his friends later on after he interrupts
him when he's playing soccer.
This theory was eventually picked on by Cobra Kai as it shows that Johnny really did feel
this way about everything that happened and blames Daniel for instigating the problems.
The show is not black-and-white and the hero is basically dependent on everyone's personal
perspectives.
With all being said, this might just be a case of overreading into an old movie that
was simply about fighting bullies - it's just that the characters were written so nicely
that we fell in love with them.
Originally a movie According to the creators of the show, Cobra Kai was originally going
to be a feature film.
However, throughout early production, they changed their mind and made it a TV show instead
because of the fact that an episodical format allows for loger stories to be told.
Plus, wanting to show different perspectives of the characters was an important point of
Cobra Kai and a single movie does not let you do that in such a short runtime.
Better late than never Actor Thomas Ian Griffith, who played the role of Terry Silver in The
Karate Kid movies, refused several offers to reprise his role in Cobra Kai, saying that
he has retired from acting.
However, once the filming of season 4 was completed, it was finally revealed by Griffith
himself that he is indeed returning as Terry Silver in the fourth season of the show - which
delighted fans worldwide.
This is funny in contrast to the fact that Elisabeth Shue was another actor that the
crew wanted for Cobra Kai but hadn't approached yet for the role of Ali - but Elisabeth ended
up approaching the creators of the show first instead - surprising them.
Mistaken for a cash-grab When Cobra Kai was announced for the first time, fans of the
original The Karate Kid series assumed that this show is going to be yet another unnecessary
Hollywood revival of a beloved and long-dead franchise.
This became worse when people learned that it's going to premiere on YouTube Red, rather
than one of the bigger networks like Hulu or Netflix.
And as if that wasn't enough, the actor of Terry Silver, Thomas Ian Griffith, thought
that any show based on The Karate Kid that is being made so much later into the present
would be a disaster.
However, fans changed their mind when it turned out to be a well-written show that has a good
balance of nostalgia and originality, and it ended up becoming popular right away.
And the same happened with Thomas as well, as he watched the pilot episode with his wife
on YouTube one day and was blown away by how good it was.
Incredible creative freedom The showrunners of Cobra Kai let actors have a lot of creative
input in the stories of their individual characters, especially in terms of how the lives of those
characters changed after the events of the original films.
For example, most of Johnny's backstory, such as having an abusive family and considering
Kreese a father figure, was in fact created by William Zabka himself.
And then we have Martin Kove, who similarly developed the idea that Kreese was a war-veteran
with PTSD who was driven to cruelty by his experiences, and this backstory was eventually
integrated into the show as well.
Furthermore, Tamlyn Tomita worked with the creators of the show to provide a more accurate
depiction of Okinawa, and Yuji Okomoto offered suggestions about Chozen's character development
too after being cast in the role.
All of these ideas were integrated into the show in one way or another, which pleased
both fans and the actors themselves alike.
Unhappy with The Karate Kid Part III Ralph Macchio revealed in an interview that he was
unhappy with The Karate Kid 3 because the writing of that movie was inconsistent, especially
when it came to the characterization of Daniel.
It felt like repeating the same story too many times and Ralph did not embrace several
of the character-related things in the movie that the script had him do.
Thus, he was finally happy when he saw how the showrunners of season 4 handled the story
aspects of The Karate Kid Part III and expanded upon that backstory in a way that the inconsistencies
within how certain characters acted was justified.
He especially liked how Terry Silver's story was handled when the character finally came
back and believes that it's much better than what the original movie had.
Change of plans in the season 3 finale In the final episode of the third season of Cobra
Kai, there is a massive fight that breaks out.
It was originally meant to happen inside the Miyagi-Do dojo with rain dropping down from
the sky.
However, due to scheduling conflicts and weather-related reasons, this fight was moved into the LaRusso
house.
The creators liked this outcome, as it made the fight edgier and it became a 'home invasion'.
And this helped the writers have more things to do with the fourth season, since a home
invasion means the police can take action too.
Jean-Claude Van Damme's seal of approval Jean-Claude Van Damme is referenced several times in Cobra
Kai and the third episode of season 2 includes footage of one of his most popular films,
Bloodsport too.
It came as a surprise one day that Van Damme actually watches the show and he took it to
social media to express his appreciation for it, saying that it's one of his favorite shows.
And he credited The Karate Kid and his own movie Bloodsport for introducing the beauty
and philosophy of martial arts to a whole new audience.
As soon as this happened, fans started demanding for him to show up in the role - which we
all hope to see happen one day!