It is a rivalry that has been brewing for 40 years now. And we assume one day, it’s going to come to a head. Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) met his bully, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) on the mats at the All-Valley Karate Tournament, and took him out with a legendary crane kick. Since then, there has been serious beef. The rivalry has been explored, and picked apart, as part of the ongoing Cobra Kai series, available to anyone with a valid Netflix account. But do these guys need one more head-to-head match, to settle things once and for all?
We knew going into Cobra Kai Season 6 that this would be the final season… and the longest season. The creators agreed to break Season 6 into three chunks, the first of which is available to watch right now. We will see how things continue when the next batch of five original episodes will arrive. But we spoke with the cast and crew of Cobra Kai during a press day, and realized that Ralph Macchio and William Zabka have different opinions about one last bout between the legends.
When we posed the question to Macchio, he admitted:
Like who would actually win? Is that the question? Because they have that great rematch in Season 4, but it's for a different purpose. That purpose is because of their belief of what's best for the kids, and that disagreement on that. So we'll settle it this way. I think for them it's less about, ‘I could beat you. No, you could beat me.’ I think they've evolved from that and it's more about their belief system that kind of gets in the way.
This has been a driving narrative force of Cobra Kai Season 6, with Daniel, Johnny, and Chosen trying to settle which dojo is the right one to lead the fighters into the Sekai Taikai. Is it Miyagi-Do? Eagle Fang? Or a combination of the value systems of all of the above? We know that Danel’s faith in Miyagi-Do has been rocked by some hurtful revelations regarding his former mentor, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). That might factor into his decisions as the Sekai Taikai plays out.
But William Zabka couldn’t fully commit to turning down a rematch with Ralph Macchio before Cobra Kai is finished. As Zabka told CinemaBlend:
I don't think either one of them is itching for another fight. But if it happened, I think they'd both go at it. But I don't think it's an itch that hasn't been scratched. I think I feel good about where that's left off. They're not done yet. In different ways.
Classic Johnny Lawrence response. He’s not going to back down, if the chance to battle his forever foe, Daniel LaRusso, presents itself. And it will have to happen during the final episodes of Cobra Kai, for even though we know there will be another Karate Kid movie, the characters from Cobra Kai are not expected to be involved in that storyline at all beyond the presence of Daniel LaRusso.
What do you think? Are Daniel and Johnny done? Will they leave the fighting to their students now? Or might they team up one last time to finally put an end to John KReese (Martin Kove), the threat that has tormented each of them for decades? Cobra Kai returns in November with five more episodes, and then concludes its epic story in 2025.
