Cobra Kai reported The Karate Kid in the best way. Not only are Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) adults now, but they have new Karate Kids teens to mentor. The show premiered on YouTube in 2018 and moved to Netflix in 2020, where audiences only grew exponentially. Season 4 has just finished production and is on its way. Cobra Kai was not the first attempt to relaunch The Karate Kid But.

Macchio spoke to Kara Swisher on her New York Times podcast To balance January 26 about the third season of Cobra Kai. During this interview, he revealed some of the first Karate kid restart the ideas he has rejected over the years.

After ‘The Next Karate Kid’, Ralph Macchio had this pitch

The next Karate Kid Still starred Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, but this time he was coaching a girl, Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank). Macchio did not appear in the film, which was released in 1994. Months later, John Travolta enjoyed a career comeback with pulp Fiction which inspired an enterprising pitcher to approach Macchio.

“There were pitches,” Macchio said To balance. “Some of them were the elevator pitch. Travolta, look what just happened with pulp Fiction and him? You should go back and do the David Lynch version of Daniel LaRusso. So I was like ‘OK, what is this.’ “

Before ‘Cobra Kai’, someone suggested a sports movie mash up!

John G. Avildsen made the first three Karate kid movies. Avildsen also directed the Oscar-winning original Rocky. Maybe today a shared universe discussion would be more welcome, but Macchio was NOT interested in joining other films.

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“Or, my favorite which was thrown at John Avildsen the director of Karate kid movie, ”Macchio said. Someone said, ‘You know, I always thought if Rocky Balboa had a kid and Daniel LaRusso had a kid and they met between Philadelphia and Newark. “We all just laughed. It will never work.

Ralph Macchio wasn’t ready to revisit “The Karate Kid” until “Cobra Kai”

2018 was a good time for Macchio to consider returning to karate gi. By the mid-90s, Macchio was ready to hang up the black belt. Macchio admits that things have slowed down in the movie world and he’s done more theater. Television helped her return to the screen with roles on Ugly Betty, shrink, and the devil. At the time when the creators of Cobra Kai spear, The Karate Kid seemed OK again.

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“I guess I was at that location,” Macchio said. “It was probably in the mid / late 90s when things really got, outside of My cousin Vinny at that point, were starting to slow down for me. I was probably better off, things got a little harder, thinner, thinner. I have to try to change direction rather than okay, let’s go again. “

Source: To balance

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