Macchio spoke to The Direct at Paleyfest and addressed Miyagi’s controversial return on the Netflix martial arts comedy hit. It seems that, regardless of how it looked, he wanted to have his moment alongside his teacher in the series that revived the franchise:
“I mean, listen, I have a little pushback on it. I don’t think, you know, we didn’t have the budget to—my main concern is, I mean, my main thing is I wanted Daniel to be fighting side-by-side with Mr. Miyagi. As far as a dialogue scene, for me, it was more about them together and more about the thing that releases it, it’s all in Daniel’s mind. It’s not really happening. It’s in his mind. So you have a little leeway in. So I think it’s all in the message, if not perfect.”
The actor also talked about Miyagi’s most prominent sequence in the show. The character’s CGI-AI version first appeared when it was revealed that Miyagi landed the death blow to another contender at the Sekai Taikai tournament. Fans were ecstatic, but it was perhaps because the shot only lasted a few seconds. In the dream sequence where Daniel and Miyagi fight the bad guys in skeleton costumes, the AI resource is more… prominent. This is what Macchio said about this sequence:
“We were talking all season about Daniel going down this sort of dark path of mystery, of, you know, what was, what he didn’t know about his mentor, and that took him down a rabbit hole, and how, in essence, in his own mind, he had to suss this out and gain wisdom, even without the ability to have him there. So it was fun to do, we were on an insane, tight schedule. We had about an hour and a half to shoot that whole scene with the skeletons and it was emotional, but it was nice to have.”
Is the New ‘Karate Kid’ Movie Connected to ‘Cobra Kai’?
The martial arts franchise that began in 1984 with John G. Avildsen’s terrific The Karate Kid is set to make its official return on May 30, 2025, with Karate Kid: Legends. The movie stars Macchio and Jackie Chan, who are both reprising their roles from the franchise as Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han, respectively. Legends officially takes place in the Karate Kid universe and makes 2010’s reboot canon.
Karate Kid: Legends is connected to Cobra Kai, although it may only be through the presence of a single character. There’s Daniel LaRusso, who continues his path to becoming a sensei and following the teachings of Mr. Miyagi. But the film could also feature other connections to Cobra Kai that we just don’t know about yet. All will be revealed when the movie is released in May.
