Cobra Kai has found success in bringing the lives of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso back into mainstream, and their exploits in the world of karate in the modern day. For the most part, it's the younger cast doing most of the heavy lifting as far as karate and other fighting is concerned, but that's not to say the seasoned cast doesn't get to do a few scenes every so often. In fact, William Zabka has had a few of those scenes and ended up pressing on through one despite a painful toe break.
William Zabka and the rest of the Cobra Kai cast were interviewed at the Paley Center back in April 2019 and talked about some of the things they enjoyed about the series. Zabka got into a story about the scenes he has filmed with his fellow actors from back in the day and recalled a particularly painful fight scene with co-star Martin Kove that took a lot out of him:
That first fight took a lot of time. I pulled my hamstring, I broke my toe! I jammed my toe nobody even knew. It went completely in my foot. I had to hobble over to the side. My stuntman was over there ready to jump in and do the scene if I couldn’t, and I just yanked it out. It hurt I tell you what it was like a knife that went up [my foot]. I didn’t tell anybody because then the stunt guy is going to come in!
Whether it was pride, or just not wanting to let the stuntman do his job that day, William Zabka insisted on doing some quick self-treatment on his toe in order to get back in the scene. Given how most of Johnny's fights go down in the show, that's more or less in line with his Cobra Kai fighting. Zabka and Ralph Macchio are not the pliable young men they once were in the '80s, so it's surprising we don't hear more stories like this!
Luckily, William Zabka was no worse for wear and will be able to continue playing Johnny Lawrence. That said, we may not see him go quite so hard in battle against John Kreese again, considering Zabka hinted that his foot injury happened in part because of Martin Kove's big feet. I'm not quite sure how a foot-to-foot collision ends in someone's toe getting jammed in their body, but the thought of it makes me want to tuck my feet under a blanket.
The world is eagerly awaiting Cobra Kai Season 3, and apparently watching the "new" Netflix series in droves. The series scored around 50 million viewers in its first 28 days on the platform, which is an impressive metric by any standard. Hopefully, those viewers stick around for the next season, which is only a few more months away.
Cobra Kai Season 3 premieres on Netflix Friday, January 8 at 12:01 a.m. PT. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more on the show, and for more news happening in television and movies.
