Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) have been through a lot in these initial three seasons of Cobra Kai. So much, that the impossible has happened; Daniel and Johnny are eventually pushing their differences aside to take up John Kreese (Martin Kove) together.
Yes, Cobra Kai is often a leisure show with tons of laughs and some super cool fight series. But it’s always successfully knitted in just enough honest acting to reflect the real mortal experience.
So while Season 3 does tee up a level of responsibility from Daniel and Johnny to unite their dojos to take down Kreese once and for all, it can’t be that easy. There are still burdens of history between them, differences in their teaching and fighting styles, and many more potential difficulties.
While proceeding to spread the Cobra Kai love, Zabka united us for a new episode of Collider Connected. Yes, the discussion does focus on The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai a good deal, but it also gave us an opportunity to examine how Zabka’s journey in the industry started and some of his less-talked-about titles, like Award-nominated nominated short film, Most. We’ll have that full conversation for you next week, but while we wait, how about a little tormentor of the conversation? Maybe the portion of it that directed on what to expect from Johnny at the beginning of Season 4?
Johnny on pairing with Daniel – It’s a tricky feeling. For one, Daniel just much saved him. Kreese was just about to choke him out. So, I think he’s eliminated at that moment. There’s an emptiness [in] it. But he’s entrusted with Daniel and there’s a good feeling of burying the hatchet. But there’s also an intensity.
The last time I talked to Zabka, it was ahead of the Season 3 launch. Of course, he couldn’t disclose any Season 3 details at the time. However, he was able to give us a sense of what’s to come by naming Johnny’s headspace at the very end of Season 2. So this time around, I chose to take that same method to get an idea of where we might see Johnny at the beginning of Season 4.
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Zabka and other casts’ views
So that’s how Johnny’s feeling tossing into Season 4, but what about Zabka and the rest of the Cobra Kai cast and crew? While they did discover a whole lot of accomplishment when the show was running on YouTube. Then it shifted to Netflix increased the fanbase drastically. You could feel it when Season 3 premiered back in January. Did that added enthusiasm influence the filming of Season 4? Here’s what Zabka had to say about that:
It’s just encouraging. It’s like, you have a decent show and you have a matinee and the curtains tight and people are applauding and they like it. And you know you’ve got the night show coming now and you’ve gotta go out and you know there’s a sense of, ‘Okay, it’s working. They like it,’ and a new kind of energy. It feels promising. It feels good when it’s working. But as an actor, my job is to dwell in the micro of it. You can’t be shaken by that. You can’t be looking at that. It’s like, if you’re a baseball player and you’re up at bat, you can’t look to the left and see who’s in the stands. You’ve gotta keep your eye on the ball. So, we’re all doing that, keeping our heads hemmed. The writers are performing their thing and we’re putting our hearts on ourselves and beating our arms up and shooting big and wide and the stories are deep and wide. I think we’re gonna deliver a great Season 4.
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