'Karate Kid' stars Ralph Macchio, William Zabka are here with the 'Cobra Kai' hype
Everything old is new again. And hey, as it turns out, that's pretty cool and good.
The Karate Kid stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka are back starting on May 2 in Cobra Kai. The stars, who reprise their respective roles of Danny LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence in the new YouTube Red series, paid a visit to The Today Show on Tuesday.
Macchio admitted that he's long been a skeptic of returning to the role that made him famous. "It was always easier, or felt more right, to let the legacy stand on its own and ... not go back to the well and fall short," he said.
Ultimately, it was the creative team that sold him. Executive producers and co-creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg are best known for their Harold and Kumar series (they also did script work for the recent Blockers). Their fellow executive producer/co-creator Josh Heald, meanwhile, wrote the Hot Tub Time Machine movies.
"They had a fresh take on how to write for the 'now' generation, but they are the biggest Karate Kid fans. I would say [it's] Star Wars to them," Macchio said.
"They wanted to treat it with respect and [they] found a smart angle in by entering the universe through Johnny Lawrence. What ever happened to this bully at that time? What is he now? [They] made him a human character."
So far, Cobra Kai has earned largely positive reviews, netting a good score of 72 from review aggregator Metacritic. Variety's review described it as "a thoughtfully modern Karate Kid sequel" and The New Yorker's (somewhat spoiler-y) take classified it as "a teen show for Gen X-ers."
Cobra Kai launches on May 2 as a YouTube Red original.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
