Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid’ Sequel Series is the best around at channeling that ‘80s Machismo.
Season 2, the series escalates into a full-blown, rib-cracking collection of flying fists and bruised egos.
The much anticipated season 3 will available on Netflix in January 2021.
Cobra Kai has quickly become one of Netflix’s most popular original TV series. Here at Black Slate Studios, we’re going to take a closer insiders look at this iconic series.
Let’s get started with some awesome behind the scenes trivia!
During the original Karate Kid movie shoot, late director John Avildsen shot hours of tournament footage from multiple angles. The crew behind Cobra Kai searched the studios vault and found a ton of never-before-seen clips, which they were able to introduce into the series via flashbacks.
Daniel’s car in season 2 is the actual same 1947 Ford Super Deluxe car from the first movie. The spirit of Mr. Miyagi lives on in the second season of “Cobra Kai” through his love of vintage cars. In the new series, Daniel LaRusso uncovers the vintage convertible that his teacher had him wax in order to instill in him the muscle memory that would be translated into defensive karate blocks. Now, Miyagi-Do Karate student Robby is the one applying the wax and doing chores to learn martial arts. This isn’t just any prop car though. It’s the original yellow Ford that was featured in the films and owned by Macchio himself.
In interviews, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka state that even though most of the scenes they were in together for the original Karate Kid, they were either arguing or Macchio was “getting his ass kicked”, they were friendly and had a lot of fun on set.
Johnny lives in the Reseda Heights apartments. This apartment complex and its location are made to resemble Daniel’s apartment complex in the original Karate Kid, complete with identical paint and coloring on the lettering. This also references the discrimination Daniel experienced in the first movie for being from Reseda instead of a richer part of LA like Johnny and Ali, and is meant to illustrate how low Johnny has descended since the original film.
In real life, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka became friends after the original Karate Kid film was completed and became a hit. Macchio said that they became even closer friends after Noriyuki “Pat” Morita (Mr. Miyagi) passed away in 2005. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka were also 80s teen heartthrobs, with Zabka usually being depicted as ‘the bad boy”.
Most of the Cobra Kai students were named after members of the crew.
One of the executive producers is Will Smith, who also served as a producer of the 2010 reboot, which starred Smith’s son Jaden.
Most of the Cobra Kai students have experience in martial arts as actual black belts or advanced trained dancers.
There’s a long standing belief that Daniel (Ralph Macchio) was the true antagonist of the original Karate Kid movie. This is due to the fact that he seems to instigate all the confrontations that ultimately result in him getting beaten up. This argument seems to be further strengthened in Cobra Kai, as he seems almost insulted that Johnny has reopened the Cobra Kai dojo. Despite this being an obvious attempt by Johnny to improve his life, Daniel goes to great lengths to have the dojo fail and get closed down.
During the scene when Johnny and his original Cobra Kai friends are in the bar, Johnny says that Tommy gave him a run for his money in the ’83 tournament’s final match. However, in the original Karate Kid film, the tournament announcer says that Johnny and Tommy’s other friend and former Cobra Kai member, Bobby Brown, was the runner-up to Johnny in the previous year (1983), meaning that Tommy never made it to the finals.
Despite his death in 2005, Pat Morita who played Mr. Miyagi in the previous four Karate Kid movies, is still part of the series. He is mentioned occasionally and seen in flashback sequences. The fifth episode is dedicated to his memory. A body double is also used in a season 2 episode showing Mr. Miyagi building his backyard.
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