Like his cast mates, Buchanan, 22, saw his social media following skyrocket when the show hit Netflix.
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“No matter who it was, we were all treated as equals and as fellow creatives, and that was a turning point for me: This is what it feels like to have my voice heard and to feel like I’m cocreating this character.” “‘Cobra Kai’ has been a huge shift for me, career-wise,” said Mouser, 24, who hadn’t done stunt-intensive work until being cast as the next LaRusso and jumped at the chance to don a gi when her character reignited her love of karate in the second season. As their bitter rivalry escalates, “Cobra Kai” explores more complex emotions as characters learn the hard way that there are no bad students, only bad teachers - and that violent karate brawls do, in fact, have grave consequences.įor its next-gen stars, the series is already opening doors, especially with the jump to Netflix. In the series’ heightened, karate-obsessed version of the Valley, ex-jock Johnny teaches his aggro style to a school of misfits while Daniel revives Miyagi-Do in his late mentor’s memory. “And by doing that you’re allowing for the possibility that anyone has the potential to grow and anyone has the potential to evolve and progress in this world.” “We try to approach our characters not from a place of judgment but from a place of understanding,” said Hurwitz. On YouTube, the first episode has amassed more than 98 million views, and the third season swiftly unseated steamy Regency-era romance “Bridgerton” in Netflix’s ranking of its top 10 TV shows.įor creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, spinning the films they grew up on into a fresh narrative - and dreaming up new characters, like Daniel’s teenage daughter, Samantha (Mary Mouser) Johnny’s estranged son, Robby (Tanner Buchanan) and Cobra Kai’s star student, Miguel - has allowed them to dive ever deeper into surprisingly poignant themes.Įxamining how Johnny and Daniel remain chained to the past, for example, was a fertile springboard for contrasting how their worldviews had diverged so starkly. Likable characters, high-energy fights, suburban melodrama and ‘80s dad-rock have fueled the three seasons of “Cobra Kai,” with a fourth already planned - and its semi-satirical approach to slinging nostalgia while expanding the “Karate Kid” mythology into a multigenerational saga has proved popular.
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And that’s what every character in the show has in some way.” It’s about adults trying to find their way, putting things behind them, struggling.
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“For me, as much as the show is karate-centric, it’s not about karate,” said Zabka, 55, who has added work behind the camera to his resume in the intervening years, nabbing an Oscar nomination for the 2003 short “Most.” “It’s about humans. The students have become the teachers - but are either of them their best selves? Daniel, meanwhile, is a bonsai-pushing car salesman milking his karate glory to promote his business. Improbably, the duo have slipped back into their roles decades later on “Cobra Kai,” in which the middle-aged Johnny - a down-and-out alcoholic stuck in the glory days of his youth and still stinging from his defeat at the ’84 All-Valley Karate Tournament - takes on his own teen protege, Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), and reopens the dojo where he learned his all-American style of “No Mercy” karate. But by the time a fourth film was made - 1994’s “The Next Karate Kid,” starring Hilary Swank - Macchio and onscreen rival William Zabka, as blond bully Johnny Lawrence, were looking to branch out. A Saturday morning cartoon even reimagined Daniel and Mr. The sleeper hit spawned sequels, including the Okinawa, Japan,-set “The Karate Kid Part II” in 1986 and “Part III” in 1989. “ Jerry Weintraub put his arm around me at the end of a screening and said, ‘We’re gonna be making a couple of these,’” said Macchio, now 59. Ralph Macchio still remembers the moment it sank in that he’d get to come back for more as Daniel LaRusso, the scrawny San Fernando Valley teen befriended by Noriyuki “Pat” Morita’s martial arts master, Mr. (Season 3 was originally produced for YouTube before the company shifted its original programming strategy.) After debuting on YouTube Premium in 2018, breakout spinoff “Cobra Kai” last year moved to Netflix, where the series, whose third season premiered on the platform New Year’s Day, received more attention than ever.
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Fans have quoted it for decades: “Sweep the leg!” “Get him a body bag!” “Wax on, wax off.” Now, more than 30 years after “ The Karate Kid” crane kicked its way into pop culture history in 1984, the mythos has been reborn for the digital age.