How Cobra Kai Season 5 Recontextualizes Karate Kid Part III

Movie followers like to rank their favourite franchises. What’s one of the best Star Wars film? What’s one of the best Lord of the Rings film? What’s one of the best James Bond film? The potential lists go on and on. But one record is totally, positively, never-in-doubt definitive.

The Karate Kid movies, Ranked (Original Trilogy Only)

1. The Karate Kid
2. The Karate Kid Part II
3. The Karate Kid Part III

That’s it. No notes. Seriously, who doesn’t assume the primary Karate Kid is one of the best (round) and the third is the worst? Even its stars agree.

“I’m the first to say [Karate Kid Part III] is not a good film,” Thomas Ian Griffin, who performs the movie’s villain, Terry Silver, stated to io9 throughout a current press day. And but, within the upcoming fifth season of Cobra Kai, Griffin’s character is the point of interest of the whole lot. We additionally know because of Netflix that the movie’s “bad boy” character Mike Barnes, performed by Sean Kanan, is coming again—and perhaps there’s extra, too. But both manner, The Karate Kid Part III, the worst Karate Kid movie, is important to the way forward for the huge hit Netflix present, and that’s actually not how Griffin and his co-star Ralph Macchio, who performs Daniel LaRusso, the Karate Kid himself, noticed this going.

“Even the shortcomings of this franchise bear fruit going forward,” Macchio informed io9. “Early on, my first meeting with Jon [Hurwitz], Josh [Heald], and Hayden [Schlossberg], who created this show, they were talking about the potential of Terry Silver in the distance and Mike Barnes and all this stuff if it ever got up in the air. That was like the last time they saw The Karate Kid… so it means something to them and that sort of heightened element of what Karate Kid Part III was, has been brought forth into Cobra Kai’s heightened tone.”

The explanation why The Karate Kid Part III are the more severe of the franchise are quite a few, to say the least. It’s a meaner movie, it cuts corners, and it’s not one thing Macchio is essentially happy with. But Griffith seems to be at it otherwise.

“[Writer] Robert Kamen was thinking he had to create a villain badder than [John] Kreese,” Griffin stated. “So it’s like this over the top thing, and I’m going… is this a little much? And [director John] Avelson was like, ‘This is the humor of this character. This is going to drive new life into the franchise.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going for it.’ So that type of commitment, which is sort of Terry’s commitment, is what I can look back and go, ‘I’m fond of that. I’m proud of that.’”

Pride components into Silver’s storyline in Cobra Kai too. His betrayal of finest buddy Kreese and hostile takeover of Cobra Kai is the primary throughline of the season—an enormous a part of which turns into the truth that Daniel LaRusso finds himself in a really distinctive place, one which’s wholly knowledgeable by the perspective of the third movie.

“It shows how you could use and grow different paths in different directions,” Macchio stated. “The ‘A’ storyline of season five for Daniel LaRusso is Terry Silver, and he being the only person in that world that knows he’s evil, besides Mike Barnes. And so as far as from the perspective of Johnny Lawrence and everyone else, the young cast and Amanda [LaRusso] and everyone else, they don’t know that.”

Daniel is likely to be the one one who is aware of Silver is pure evil originally of the season, however that received’t be the case by the top of the season. And Griffin relished the possibility to dig again in. “To bring that character back, it’s funny because in a way, it’s a redemption story,” he stated. “We are really seeing what drove Terry Silver. We got to tell that story. So when you look back, I think it’s that much more fun watching Karate Kid III. Not that I’m saying anyone should go back and watch Karate Kid III right now. But still, I think it really informs us to his world and where he was psychologically that just makes it that much more interesting. And on the flip side, that makes Terry Silver in Cobra Kai—in this goofy, ridiculous world—a very fascinating, watchable character.”

Macchio agrees. While the combination of The Karate Kid Part III is nice for the story and the way forward for Cobra Kai, it doesn’t change how he feels about it. “It enhances Cobra Kai going forward,” he stated. “But will I go back to watching Karate Kid III and say ‘This is a brilliant film and I feel the LaRusso in that story is the best he’s been in all three movies?’ No. It’s not going to change that, but man has it been an amazing gift going forward now.”

We’ll have extra Cobra Kai within the coming days. The fifth season debuts September 9.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the most recent Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and the whole lot you could find out about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.