Cobra Kai returns
HOLLYWOOD is littered with the corpses of failed reboots.
But Cobra Kai, the acclaimed television spin-off of The Karate Kid movies (1984 to 1994), is often held up as an exemplary revival of a hit franchise, which it reinvented by stepping into the shoes of one of the original villains – and questioning whether the hero was all that heroic.
In an interview from Los Angeles, its three creators, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, explain why they took this unorthodox approach – and why they deliberately made one of the bullies Asian American.
The first Karate Kid film in 1984 told the story of new kid in town Danny Larusso (Ralph Macchio), who is tormented by a band of karate-kicking bullies from the local dojo, Cobra Kai, led by Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).
Danny then finds his own karate teacher and mentor, Mr Miyagi – played by Pat Morita in an Oscarnominated performance – and defeats Johnny in a karate tournament.
Cobra Kai picks up the story 30 years later, with Danny now a successful business owner and family man.
Johnny, meanwhile, is a downand-out, angry, unemployed drunk estranged from his son.
But he tries to redeem himself by resurrecting the infamous Cobra Kai dojo and teaching his teenage neighbour, Miguel (Xolo Mariduena), how to defend himself from bullies.
First released on Youtube’s subscription service in the United States in 2018, Cobra Kai was a breakout hit for the video-sharing service, becoming one of the most Google-searched TV shows that year. The pilot episode alone was viewed more than 55 million times.
Netflix has now acquired the series and is airing its two seasons, with a third season in the works.
Explaining the genesis of the show, Hurwitz says he, Heald and Schlossberg, who are all 42 and childhood friends, first talked about revisiting the Karate Kid universe in the early 2000s.
“We loved the movies growing up and had this fascination with Johnny, the bully.
“There was an interview with William Zabka, who played him, where he said he viewed Johnny not as a bad guy, but just another kid in this high school with his own problems.”
This got the trio thinking about the bullies in their own lives and seeing the world from their perspective.
“And it felt like the themes of bullying and mentorship from The
Karate Kid films were just as relevant today,” Hurwitz says.
The time was also ripe for a nostalgic 1980s reboot, Schlossberg notes, with the proliferation of streaming services fuelling a demand for shows and films from yesteryear.
“There’s a greater demand for revisiting the past and we saw that happening and took advantage of the zeitgeist.”
Cobra Kai also capitalised on the fact that iconic films such as The
Karate Kid have been watched over and over by many viewers.
Hurwitz says: “There’s a real affection for these characters, and our approach was to continue with the themes and characters we fell in love with in the past, but find new ways for you to be emotionally invested in them.”
“Then we introduce new characters like Miguel and, to quote Mr Miyagi, Cobra Kai is ‘different but same’. It has a modern point of view and sensibility, a layer of comedy and a lot to play with generationally, contrasting the ‘80s mindset versus the mindset of today.”
Another unusual choice the show makes is with one of the bullies Miguel confronts at school, Kyler, played by Korean-american actor Joe Seo.
The Karate Kid movies have been accused of perpetuating stereotypes about Asians through its portrayal of Mr Miyagi and other Japanese characters, and Cobra
Kai’s creators say they wanted to subvert some of those tropes. “Hayden and I created the
Harold & Kumar franchise,” says Hurwitz, referring to the 2004 to 2011 comedy films starring John Cho and Kal Penn.
“And the reason we did was we grew up with a lot of Asian friends who never saw people like themselves on the big screen. Back then, most Asian characters had accents and were exchange students.
“So we’ve had a lot of conversations about their representation and the Kyler character is an extension of that,” he explains.
“We’ve done a lot of Asian stoner characters that felt true to the people we know, but we wanted to show a different kind of character – and a high-school bully can be an Asian guy.”
Seo, he says, was excited to play him. “He said: ‘I’ve never had the opportunity to go up for a role quite like this.’ And we’re thankful for his performance because he made Kyler a special and unique character.” – The Straits Times/asia News Network