Dan Trachtenberg is a huge fan of the series.
One of the best things about Cobra Kai is that the long-running series allowed die-hard fans of The Karate Kid franchise to see their beloved characters in a different light. One of those characters was Elisabeth Shue’s Ali, who was famously written off with barely any consideration to her storyline and importance. In an interview with Collider, Prey director Dan Trachtenberg revealed that he had a role in nudging Shue to agree to make a widely celebrated return to the Karate Kid world.
During the interview, Trachtenberg revealed to our own Perri Nemiroff that he had a chance to talk to Shue when he was directing the pilot episode of Prime Video’s The Boys. In between takes, the filmmaker had the chance of revealing to Shue how much he loved Cobra Kai, and that helped her make a decision.
“She was nervous, too. She had had a very tragic situation in the first and Part II in not returning, and so was very nervous about how it was gonna — it’s a totally different perspective on that movie — you know, for all of them, it was a silly movie with a silly name. We all fell in love with it, but we didn’t all fall in love with ‘Ali with an I.’ She was the cheerleader, she represented a very specific kind of female role in 80s movies that we quickly kind of forget about because of our deep affection for that movie. And so I agree, the guys handled it really well, and once she sparked to it and realize what they were doing, I think it made it a no brainer.”
Shue’s Return Was One of the Highlights of Cobra Kai
In The Karate Kid II, Ali was written off in a pretty inconsiderate way, and teenager Daniel LaRusso makes it sound like she was an evil and cruel person. In Season 3 of Cobra Kai, “Ali with an i” returns to tell her version of their break-up story, which forces LaRusso to take some accountability for the way he treated her and changes the misogynistic way that Ali was dismissed in the sequel.
Another great thing about this particular storyline was that it was completely on brand with Cobra Kai’s premise: The series is all about looking back at past behavior and learning – or not – from your mistakes, and Shue’s return embodied those themes.
