Xolo Maridue?a and William Zabka Break Down Father-Son Dynamic in ‘Cobra Kai:’ ‘The One Thing Johnny Needed Is This Boy Who Needed Him’
You’ve heard this story before. In 1984, a kid from New Jersey and a California karate champion met on a beach in the San Fernando Valley. They fought. They challenged each other. And, eventually, the infamous crane kick happened. “The Karate Kid” galvanized audiences when it first came out. Three decades later, “Cobra Kai” subverted the franchise’s traditional narrative by transforming the bad boy of karate, Johnny Lawerence (William Zabka), into a Mr. Miyagi figure. The series, which first premiered in 2018, begins 34 years after the original “Karate Kid” and introduces Johnny as a dead-beat father still reeling form his defeat in the All Valley Karate Championship. When he meets Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridue?a), an immigrant teenager being harassed at school, Johnny reopens the infamous Cobra Kai dojo. The two form an inseparable father-son bond that has evolved through six seasons of the hit Netflix dramedy.
“Cobra Kai” has racked up nine Emmy nominations to date, with its final season debuting at No. 1 on the streamer and garnering 14.8 million views in its first four days. As the series comes to a close — the final segment of Season 6 will drop on Netflix early next year — the two actors are reflecting on their time together.
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“The journey with Billy has been the most gratifying part of this show,” Maridue?a said. “That love, that found-father relationship has always been my favorite to play.”
Maridue?a says he had the opportunity to perform specific scenes and chemistry reads with Zabka even before landing the role of Miguel, which informed much of the subtext between their characters in the early seasons.
“You see in Johnny’s character, he really yearns to be a good father figure. On the flip side, Miguel didn’t have a dad,” Maridue?a says. “In this sense, they really balance each other out. They really helped each other learn how to be the best versions of themselves.”
Zabka contextualizes how the mistakes Johnny made with his biological son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) have haunted him. He explains his character’s failure to be present for his son’s brith due to an drunken trip the previous night inform the emotional core of his relationship with Miguel.
“The thing that hurts Johnny the most is how he wasn’t there for his his own son on the very first day of his life,” Zabka says. “All he wants is his son back. He’s got a hole in his heart, and Miguel fills that.”
Zabka details key inflection points between the duo such as a particular moment in Season 3, during which Miguel is recovering from a devastating injury.
Zabka highlights the specific scene in which Johnny first visits Miguel in the hospital. The latter is in a deep coma with tubes across his face. Johnny contemplates how he has failed his prodigy. When Miguel eventually gains consciousness and Johnny challenges him to walk, the two have a heated argument.
“Miguel tells Johnny he’s not being a sensei, and that he’s weak. Suddenly he gives Johnny strength,” Zabka says. “In the middle of that, there’s this kind of miraculous moment where his legs are working again. So there’s this give and take in the beauty of this relationship.”
This arc ultimately culminates in a montage in the seventh episode of Season 3, in which Johnny puts Miguel through a physical regimen that requires his student to navigate obstacle courses, climb stairs and catch medicine balls — all while on crutches. The entire time Johnny uses a wheelchair to meet Miguel where he is, and show him that walking again is possible.
The result is a dolly zoom shot depicting Miguel holding the crutches he no longer needs over his head as he and Johnny dispose of them in the dumpster. This sequence is played to dramatic effect through the W.A.S.P. song “I Wanna Be Somebody,” which came out during the same year as the original “Karate Kid,” effectively capturing the emotional tone and stylistic feel of both this moment and the franchise itself.
“Johnny really met Miguel at one of his lowest moments,” Maridue?a says of this scene. “What makes it real is you have the tender, sweet moments but then you also have the character building, the tough love.”
Maridue?a says his relationship with Zabka off-camera has been a close one, and that both Zakbka and Ralph Macchio set a precedent of creating a positive environment on set for the younger cast members. He adds that leading a show as a 16-year-old — his age when “Cobra Kai” began — was a daunting task, and that he will always be grateful to Zabka for mentoring him.
“The one thing Johnny needed in his life was this boy who needed him,” Zabka says. “It started to bring out the goodness in Johnny. This whole series has been him breaking down these walls and and failing and making mistakes and being stuck in the ’80s and and trying to evolve and grow. [Miguel] helps him do that.”
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