Ralph Macchio's Reason For Returning As Daniel LaRusso After Almost 30 Years Is Exactly Why Cobra Kai Works
Daniel LaRusso had a solid reason to return to the Karate Kid franchise after 30 years, which explains why Cobra Kai is so incredibly successful.
The reason behind Ralph Macchio's return as Daniel LaRusso explains why Cobra Kai has successfully revived a 30-year-old franchise. Instead of treading the same path as its parent franchise, Cobra Kai begins by focusing on Johnny Lawrence's struggles and how the losses and failures of his past have taken a toll on him. The show then gradually expands its vision to highlight how the lives of other legacy characters from the Karate Kid series have changed over the years. While at it, Cobra Kai also introduces a new roster to make its karate-centric action and drama appealing to new audiences who may not be too familiar with Karate Kid's lore.
Compared to Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso's Cobra Kai arc also opens on a different note where he is still among the front-runners of the series but not the main focus. Even his bad blood with Johnny Lawrence remains central to the series, but it is only one of the many rivalries brewing in the Valley. Recounting how Cobra Kai made him return to the Karate Kid franchise, Ralph Macchio has offered some insights on why Cobra Kai felt like the right way to continue Karate Kid's legacy.
Macchio Is Right - Cobra Kai Was The Only Way To Continue Karate Kid
In an interview (via Collider), Ralph Macchio recalled how he was given several opportunities to reprise his role as Daniel LaRusso in Karate Kid reboots. However, none of those ideas gave him a strong reason to return to the franchise. Although he was open to the idea of stepping into Daniel's boots again, the role was too precious for him to settle for something that was not going to honor the original Karate Kid series' legacy. Therefore, after three decades of retiring from his Karate Kid role, Ralph Macchio did not agree to play Daniel again until Cobra Kai came along.
As Ralph Macchio explained, Cobra Kai was the only way to continue the Karate Kid franchise because, unlike most failed reboots, Cobra Kai was offering something new to audiences while still staying true to the "Miyagi-ism" of the parent movie series. Since the original movies had already explored Daniel LaRusso's storyline as the hero and Johnny's as a villain, the only way the franchise could progress was by not portraying the characters in a black-and-white light. By emphasizing Johnny Lawrence's struggles and humanizing aspects of John Kreese and Terry Silver's narrative, Cobra Kai does exactly that and brings a fresh spin on Karate Kid's tropes and storytelling gimmicks.
Why Daniel As Another Mr. Miyagi Wouldn't Have Worked
In the same interview, Ralph Macchio also added that someone had previously pitched him a reboot story where he could be the new Mr. Miyagi for his son. This narrative, however, would not have worked because replicating Mr. Miyagi and Daniel's unique Karate Kid dynamic would not only be challenging but would also offer nothing new to the franchise. Moreover, Daniel LaRusso was never — and still is not — anything like Mr. Miyagi. Although he tries to live by Mr. Miyagi's principles and ideologies, he still has a long way to go before he reaches his mentor's mastery of karate and life.
Therefore, portraying Daniel LaRusso as Mr. Miyagi would create inconsistencies and disrespect the original Karate Kid movies' legacy. At the same time, if Daniel were to take Mr. Miyagi's role in a reboot, it would almost eliminate the possibility of all conflict in his storyline, which would again not be as gripping as his Cobra Kai rivalry with Johnny Lawrence, Kreese, and Silver. There may still be a few alternate ways in which a Karate Kid reboot would have succeeded, but Cobra Kai proves to be the only way to seamlessly traverse the essence of the parent movie series while bringing something new to the table.
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