Cobra Kai has officially come to an end. After six seasons, we’ve watched how two karate Kid rivals found a path to friendship.
Ralph Macchio talked with us about the development of the story. The final season saw a lot of questions about Mr. Miyagi and who he really was, and it also gave Daniel a chance to channel his inner-Johnny when Johnny needed it the most.
Daniel gives Johnny the coaching he needs in Cobra Kai
There’s a great moment in the final episode of the series where we get the classic Karate Kid training montage. This time, it’s Daniel training with Johnny, who will need to go up against Sensei Wolf in the final of the Sekai Taikai.
There’s a lot riding on this for Johnny. He wants to feel like he’s worthy of something in life—and he needs to make up for the loss on the All Valley mat in 1984. Who better than Daniel to train him.
During the roundtable interview, Macchio did share that he almost lost his balance while doing the crane kick. It was William Zabka who kept his composure.
Of course, during the fight, Johnny starts to lose his confidence. He’s afraid of Wolf, and Chozen makes it clear to Daniel that he needs to find a way to coach Johnny well. Daniel needs to speak Johnny’s language, and it’s exactly what happens.
“That was a nice moment. When I read that in the script, I knew exactly what they wanted for that scene. I said, there’s only one way to do this and it’s all in…I would love to see that in a theater of 500 people, but I’m gonna have to visit people house-to-house because I want to see the true Cobra Kai fan’s reaction of Daniel LaRusso dropping some profanities and telling Johnny to just go all-in Cobra Kai.”
There is no doubt that the development from Daniel being all about Miyagi-Do to accepting the ways of Cobra Kai at times has been tremendous. It’s not been one-sided, either, with Johnny learning that Miyagi-Do also has its place.
“They’ve laid that out to pay it off, and it’s just a great moment, but what pays that even more so is when Johnny Miyagi-Dos it and doesn’t go running face into the crane kick. He takes that Miyagi-Do lesson that Daniel has given. So you truly needed both of them to win that fight, and that was something that we discussed as this script was being written. I said, I know it’s Johnny’s moment, but he cannot win this fight without Daniel LaRusso, otherwise, it’s off balance.”
The development of Mr. Miyagi in Cobra Kai
We always knew that Mr. Miyagi had a hard life. He didn’t like to talk about it in the Karate Kid movies, and it’s clear that he didn’t share too much about it even after the movies to the LaRusso family. It was those secrets that led to Daniel worrying that everything he was learning about Mr. Miyago were true. Was this man really one of the bad guys in the past?
In the end, we learn that there is always more to the story. Mr. Miyagi didn’t fight without reason. I asked Macchio about that development, and what it was like for him as the storyline was developed. Well, it’s all about someone being human.
“There are all layers and depth of characters in human life and choices and what define a good person from a person who’s made some mistakes. We’ve all had that in life. We’ve all had moments that haven’t been our best days. We’ve glorified Miyagi throughout the series, and for a good reason, because he is an amazingly good man and mentor…but he has some demons or dark places in his life that give depth to his character.”
The development of Miyagi’s story helped with Daniel in his evolution throughout the series, especially in the final episodes of the series. Daniel was so certain that he was always on the right path by following Miyagi’s teachings, but he started to fear that everything he was doing was wrong.
“[Miaygi’s story propels] Daniel forward in his evolution as an adult. It was important to figure out how to do that in a show when you have 16 episodes, especially with the first seasons diving into all of Johnny Lawrence’s demons and problems with his family and stepdad. With LaRusso, it was always ‘everything’s great.’ He got the good house, good family, good kids for the most part. I was always pushing to show the other side. Let’s go deeper. I’d always talk to the writers about that each season. What could we mine to find out? Let’s teach something about LaRusso that we don’t know.”
The final season of the series brought us a couple of moments where Daniel and Miyagi are together, with one of those of them fighting side-by-side. This was something Macchio wanted to see happen as the series came to a close.
“I always said, can we find a place where we see Daniel and Miyagi together in some way? I want that hero moment where they are side by side in some way. How do we do that without having the use of the Mr. Miyagi character? This is what they came up with. It’s all internal for Daniel; it’s all in his mind. Then we get to see the impact of Mr. Miyagi and the letting go of the sharp edges and seeing the truth of the core of the human being that he was and paying that legacy forward.”
Macchio only had a lot of good to say about how Miyagi’s character was incorporated into the series, as it was important to him from the beginning. As a Karate Kid fan who had been worried about the revival at first, I will say that I found it beautifully handled.
Cobra Kai is available to stream on Netflix.