Good news Cobra Kai fans! During an interview with Entertainment Weekly at Comic-Con, Ralph Macchio revealed that the upcoming third season of Cobra Kai will see his character, Daniel LaRusso, return to Japan in order to continue to navigate through life without the mentorship of his Karate Kid sensei, Mr. Miyagi (played by the late Pat Marita in the Karate Kid trilogy). LaRusso fought in Japan during the events of 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II.
“For Season 3, something I can tease is that, albeit we have a lot of cleaning up to do based on the events of season 2, some of the stories will dive into the origins of both Miyagi-Do Karate and Cobra Kai,” Macchio told EW. “Like, the beginnings of those two forms of martial arts, and we’ll learn stuff about both that we never knew. And that includes LaRusso going to Okinawa, which is a piece of Season 3.”
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Macchio also explained his desire to keep Miyagi’s presence felt on the show, which is one of the reasons Season 2 saw LaRusso rebuild the Miyagi-Do. The actor revealed that the initial pitch of the project was to have the prolific instructor deeply woven in LaRusso’s life story.
“Whether it be something [LaRusso] needs to tap back into to find balance in his life if he’s gone off… and that stuff has all been incorporated last season,” Macchio explained.
The actor dropped a few other tidbits about the upcoming season during the interview, but would not reveal whether or not Elisabeth Shue would make an appearance; and refused to talk about Miguel’s (Xolo Maridueña) condition following his accident in the season finale.
Just after the second season’s record-breaking premiere, YouTube has officially renewed their critically-acclaimed martial arts drama series Cobra Kai for a third season which is scheduled to premiere in 2020.
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In Cobra Kai, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka revisit their star-making roles from the iconic film franchise, The Karate Kid. The epic adversaries return to the dojo, thirty years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament. A down-and-out Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a now successful Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), who has been struggling to maintain balance in his life without the guidance of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi. The first season proved to be a strong success for the video service, with the first episode garnering over 50 million views within five months of airing and critics and audiences praising the series, awarding it the rare 100% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.