Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, the karate kid, william zabka

Cobra Kai Star William Zabka on Johnny Lawrence's Redemption, Kreese

Cobra Kai star William Zabka on completing Johnny Lawrence's redemption arc from The Karate Kid to today, making amends, and more.

While Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg always intended to open Pandora's Box of The Karate Kid Miyagi-verse, the journey was always about William Zabka's Johnny Lawrence from day one. Even as franchise star Ralph Macchio joined him on his journey as rival Daniel LaRusso, fans never got to see how Johnny's life turned out given the linear nature of cinema with the next two films following Daniel and Pat Morita's Nariyoshi Miyagi. The Netflix series allowed fans to play catch up on how Johnny's life was ruined as his confidence was not only shattered by his defeat from LaRusso at the All Valley Karate Tournament but also the betrayal by his abusive sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) to which Miyagi saved Johnny after Keese attempted to choke his student out. With the presumably final chapter written in Johnny's life, Zabka spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how Johnny emerged like a phoenix, not only finally getting his big win at the Sekai Taikai in the Cobra Kai finale but finally making amends for his former father figure.

Cobra Kai Star William Zabka Reflects on Creators' Pitch and Johnny's Redemption

Zabka reflected when Hurwitz, Heald, and Schlossberg pitched him Cobra Kai as a YouTube Original series in 2018. "I think their love for Johnny Lawrence, and the work I did in the '80s from some other films, too, I was always the heel. They called me for a meeting to pitch 'Cobra Kai' and I had no idea what the pitch was about. They just said they had an idea for something that I might be interested in, and they started with Johnny Lawrence. I said okay," he explained. "They pitched it as a redemption story, but he would be rough around the edges and Johnny opens up Cobra Kai again. My initial response was, 'Really? Why would he go back to Cobra Kai?' So they pitched it as a redemption arc, but I didn't have a full, clear picture of what that would look like."

As far as telling Johnny's story, the showrunners were also inspired by a certain Bob Odenkirk-starred series. "I was more concerned about how we stepped into it and where Johnny is today. I was very protective that he didn't go down with the proverbial crane kick at the end of the show and become the biggest heel of all time," Zabka said. "But they kept reassuring me with their words and whole hearts on how much they loved the character and loved my work and that they were going to give him more of the 'Better Call Saul' treatment. That he would be more of an antihero."

At the end of the series, we find Daniel helps Johnny back into his old dojo to remake Cobra Kai in his own image as he intended from season one. As far as the state of Johnny and Daniel's relationship after the finale, "I think somewhere down the line, they're going to bump heads again. But for this moment right now, they've put all their differences aside. The whole arc of those two characters… they're so far apart," Zabka said. "I look at it like a triangle; they're moving to the same endpoint, but they have different ways of getting there. Throughout the show, every time they bang heads and make up or come back together, they are a little bit closer to the top and a little bit more aligned. At the end, they're fully aligned, so I think they understand."

For more, including how they recruited Macchio into the series, seeing the series' success grow from YouTube into Netflix, how much the "second place" scene played into the narrative in Cobra Kai's final season, friendship with Macchio, and more, you can check out the rest of the interview.

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