‘Cobra Kai’ brings ‘Karate Kid’ leads back together

MARIETTA, Ga. — To hear William Zabka tell it, Johnny Lawrence was a victim of circumstances.

As the nemesis of Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso in “The Karate Kid” (1984), the definitive underdog tale for at least one generation, Johnny played the story’s villain.

The films cemented Zabka’s pop-culture reputation for goldenboy bullies just begging for the kicks to the face that inevitably landed in the final act.

The legacy is one that the actor is OK with, he insisted during a break on the set of “Cobra Kai.” The 10-episode series, available beginning today on YouTube Red, picks up the “Karate Kid” story more than three decades later.

Zabka needed little prompting to break down the injustice of Johnny’s infamy: Daniel’s cheap shot on the beach; the unprovoked waterhose incident at the Halloween dance; and the fact that, in the film’s final showdown, Johnny was “fighting square and clean” until his demented sensei ordered him to sweep Daniel’s injured leg.

Some grudges go dormant, but they don’t go away.

That’s the idea animating “Cobra Kai,” and it gives the latest TV revival more bakedin tension than the average nostalgia-fest.

The half-hour comedy — created by Josh Heald, Jonathan Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, longtime friends and “Karate Kid” obsessives — flips the story to focus on Johnny.

“Cobra Kai” offers the young toughturned-old deadbeat a chance at redemption while illuminating the reasons behind his lifelong behavior.

When Johnny resurrects the old Cobra Kai dojo, it triggers Daniel, a successful car dealer who misses the stabilizing influence of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). As the rivalry re-ignites and finds proxy in proteges, resentments as well as confrontations and hook-kicks ensue.

Now in their 50s, Macchio and Zabka have each had periods of wanting to keep “The Karate Kid” at arm’s length. But they were drawn back by the update to the story and its themes — some of which, such as bullying, are gaining more attention now than they did in 1984.

“Cobra Kai” draws almost exclusively from the first movie and actually begins with a flashback to the moment Daniel laid out Johnny in the ’84 All Valley Karate Championship with the infamous crane kick.

“That kick to the head sent them on two different trajectories,” Hurwitz said. “Daniel on the upswing, and Johnny in the downward spiral that’s been going for the last 30 years.”

When events conspire to bring the old foes back into both karate and one another’s orbit, history repeats itself in melodramatic fashion. Johnny’s student Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), a bullied new kid in town, squares off with Daniel’s protege, Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Johnny’s estranged son.

In separate interviews, Macchio and Zabka struck similar notes of protectiveness about the “Karate Kid” legacy, about how important it was for “Cobra Kai” to spin the story forward and include some of the film’s heart.

The actors long ago made peace with the idea of the world never seeing them move past “The Karate Kid.”

“There’s something alive about it,” Zabka said. “These characters have become real to people in a way.”