40/20
Avildsen shot hours of tournament footage from multiple angles
Scenario
Decades after their clash at the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, middle-aged Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence are once again martial arts rivals. During the filming of the original Karate Kid, the late director John G. The team behind Cobra Kai searched the studio vault and found a ton of never-before-seen footage that they were able to introduce into the series via flashbacks.
Ralph Macchio told Uproxx that there are three brand-new angles of the famous crane kick
One of them involves Zabka’s real-life mom, who was in the stands in various angles that were not seen until 2018. Many people believe that Miyagi’s name on his tombstone is a continuity error, as in Karate Kid 4 (1994) his name is listed as Keisuke, but it was actually earlier shown on the sign held by Chozen in Karate Kid 2 (1986) to be Nariyoshi. This means that The Next Karate Kid changed its name, while Cobra Kai kept the name it was previously given.
Cobra Kai is so much better than I thought it would be
However, another interesting fact is that the name given in The Karate Kid Part II is not the original name given to Miyagi. In The Karate Kid (1984), it is briefly seen on Miyagi’s dog tags, attached to the keys to the 1948 Ford he gave Daniel for his birthday, that Miyagi’s name is Hideo.. Featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Anthony Mackie/Ralph Macchio/Kiry Shabazz (2018).
I’m glad I was wrong
I grew up a fan of The Karate Kid, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from this and thought it would be a cheap grab for the kids. It’s so much better than any of the commercials, especially William Zabka! He’s the absolute star of this show as Johnny Lawrence.
