Avildsen shot hours of tournament footage from multiple angles
Scenario
Decades after their 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament bout, a middle-aged Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence find themselves martial-arts rivals again.. During the original Karate Kid shoot, late director John G. The crew behind Cobra Kai searched the studio vault and found a ton of never-before-seen clips, which they were able to introduce into the series via flashbacks.
Ralph Macchio told Uproxx there are three brand new angles of the famous crane kick
One of them includes Zabka's real life mom, who was in the stands in different angles that went unseen until 2018. Many people believe that Miyagi's name on his headstone is a continuity error, given that in Karate Kid 4 (1994) his name is stated to be Keisuke, but it was actually shown previously on a sign being held for him by Chozen in Karate Kid 2 (1986) to be Nariyoshi. This means that it was The Next Karate Kid that changed his name, while Cobra Kai kept the name previously given for him.Another interesting fact, however, is that the name given in The Karate Kid Part II was not the original first name given to Miyagi.
Cobra Kai is so much better than I thought it would be
In Karate Kid (1984), it can briefly be seen on Miyagi's dog tags, attached to the keys of the 1948 Ford given to Daniel for his birthday, that Miyagi's first name is Hideo.. Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Anthony Mackie/Ralph Macchio/Kiry Shabazz (2018). I grew up a Karate Kid fan but wasn't sure what to expect from this and thought it would be some cheap kiddy money grab.
I'm glad I was wrong
It's so much better than it has any business being, especially William Zabka! He absolutely is the star of this show as Johnny Lawrence. You root for him on this more than Daniel (Ralph Macchio).