You want me to come across

with a nice roundhouse on the floor?

It takes me me six hours to warm up.

[crash]

[punches]

- Dad, stop!

- Hi, I'm Ralph Macchio,

and I'm here to explain everything you need to know

for the next season of Cobra Kai.

Daniel LaRusso is the protagonist

from the original Karate Kid films.

He and his mom moved from Newark, New Jersey

out to Reseda, California.

He'd befriended a maintenance man

by the name of Mr. Miyagi,

who taught him martial arts.

He needed that because he was being bullied

by his nemesis, Johnny Lawrence.

Johnny Lawrence was the ultimate bully

in the Karate Kid film.

He would pummel Daniel LaRusso any chance he got.

He struck first, struck hard, with no mercy.

- [Group] Strike first, strike hard, no mercy sir.

- I can't hear you.

- [Group] Strike first, strike hard, no mercy sir.

- And he and Daniel LaRusso met

at the All Valley Under-18 karate tournament,

for the ultimate showdown martial art battle,

which I won, Daniel LaRusso.

The Cobra Kai series really kicks off

when Johnny saves a Miguel Diaz from a group of bullies,

and it's kind of ironic in our story,

because Johnny being the ultimate bully,

back in the day, is now kind of flipping the script on that.

So for the past 30 years,

Johnny Lawrence has been going further and further downhill.

Ironically, the crane kick to the face

that happened in 1984 was probably the best thing

that happened to Johnny in the last 30 years,

that's how tough it's been for him

as he's tried to find his way through his adult life,

and he has spiraled further and further down,

and now he's at a low point

in which this kid Miguel Diaz comes into his life

and actually is the spark that motivates him

to get his crap together.

Miguel Diaz is what we call our millennial Daniel LaRusso

in the Cobra Kai series.

He is a fatherless kid with a single mom,

trying to fit in, not necessarily well liked in school.

Miguel winds up being somewhat of a thorn in Johnny's side.

Johnny wants to be left alone, to just have his life,

and wallow in his own misery,

and this kid, this nagging, questioning kid in Miguel Diaz,

keeps coming along, looking for answers,

and Lawrence can't help but take action.

Johnny does become a bit of a mentor to Miguel.

The difference is, he is unorthodox

in all his ways of teaching.

He is politically incorrect.

One of my favorite beats is when Miguel asks

how should he clean the windows at the dojo,

- No, I don't give a [beep].

- and that's the exact opposite

of the way Daniel LaRusso was taught.

- Wax on, right hand make circle.

Wax off, left hand circle.

- There's always that spin,

the teachings in Miyagi-Do,

versus the Cobra Kai line of thinking,

which is what Johnny Lawrence has grown up with.

Johnny Lawrence.

- Hey man.

- Well, you still got those golden locks, hey?

So the first time Johnny and Daniel see each other

after 34 years time is at Daniel's auto dealership,

when Johnny is coming to get his car

which was just in an accident.

- Oh, this is the guy whose ass you kicked.

- Listen, it was a really close match,

but if you want to get technical, I kicked his face.

[laughter]

I'm just busting your chops.

Daniel's all successful, happily ever after,

Johnny is down and out on his luck.

Johnny has a totally different perspective of LaRusso,

who's been haunting him

on auto dealership billboards and commercials.

For LaRusso, this is just a blast from the past,

even though this guy beat the crap out of him

like 10 times when he was 17 years old.

So this scene is one of my favorites,

because of all the perspectives,

and how different they are at that moment.

You know, there's such a chemistry

between Billy Zabka and myself

that I always felt was there,

but never to the level after having 34 years

of life lived as the actors,

and also as these characters.

Stepping in those shoes, with all that time gone,

it was like yesterday times 10.

All the energy, and what was underneath,

because we both lived and walked

in the shoes of these characters through the films,

and in life and pop culture,

that we had so much going in,

that it just amped up that sort of level

of chemistry and rivalry from the get-go.

This guy really had it in for me.

- Yeah, well you did move in on my girl.

- Well, she actually wasn't

really your girl anymore, was she?

In the early part of Cobra Kai season one,

Daniel is sort of the antagonist for Johnny Lawrence,

because we are entering the world

through Johnny's eyes, and LaRusso, in his defense,

when Johnny comes in for the car,

he offers to take care of it, he offers to pay for it,

he is doing good, but he can't help himself

with his sort of cocky East coast-ness,

but I think that adds to the longevity

and the depth of the Cobra Kai series.

That ignites something in Johnny Lawrence's brain,

and he goes back to Miguel, and Miguel says,

"Are you gonna be my karate teacher?"

And it pushes into a closeup,

and Johnny Lawrence says, "No, I'm gonna be your sensei."

And hence, this begins the passionate drive

of Johnny Lawrence to get his life together,

to carry forth the legacy of Cobra Kai

in the San Fernando Valley,

which is gonna be a problem.

[punches]

Amanda LaRusso, she is Daniel LaRusso's wife

and partner in their LaRusso auto dealership empire.

- What do you say we let Anthony play with his thing,

and you and I get a couple drinks.

- Dirty martinis?

- Yes, ice, ice cold.

- Perfect.

She is supportive, she is grounded,

she is the voice of reason

to Daniel LaRusso's knee jerk temper,

and they balance each other, if you will.

- Holy [beep] Sam, that was amazing.

- Sensei Sam.

- Who is Samantha LaRusso?

She is Daniel LaRusso's daughter, his pride and joy.

They have a great, great close relationship,

and she is going through her own struggles,

not unlike what her father went through back in 1984.

There's a connection to martial arts,

as Samantha trained when she was young,

but then abandoned it, and is now getting back into it.

It's a big part of our story.

This is actually the first scene I shot With William Zabka.

This is when Daniel goes to the dojo

to confront Johnny Lawrence after learning

that Tyler, Samantha's boyfriend,

receives injuries from Johnny Lawrence in the fight

outside the mini mart.

It's a great standoff scene.

It sort of sets up the rivalry, and where it's going,

and lays down the line in the sand

from LaRusso's perspective of you cannot put forth

this negative form of martial arts, and open this up.

I mean, it really is the kryptonite.

He cannot allow the contamination of Cobra Kai

in the San Fernando Valley.

The big pivotal turning point

in the middle of the first season

is a scene that takes place in the lunchroom,

when Kyler embarrasses Samantha, Miguel stands up for her,

and attacks him and his friends,

defeating them all in an impressive display,

and gaining Samantha's respect.

Kids record the fight and it goes viral,

and then it prompts all these kids

to then sign up for Cobra Kai,

and make it bigger, better, and more popular,

which turns out to be the worst case scenario

for Daniel LaRusso, but in any event,

you see Miguel take the teachings of Johnny Lawrence

and carry it forward into that generation.

- No need fight anymore.

You prove a point.

- What point, that I can take a beating?

I mean every time I see those guys again,

they're gonna know they got the best of me.

Miyagi was the grounding force.

Miyagi would always take LaRusso,

and bring him back to the center, you know?

He would always offer those simple teachings

that seemed so clear to a young student.

You know, I always say, just because you have knowledge

of a subject, doesn't necessarily mean you can teach it,

and Miyagi was a master at that,

and he knew where LaRusso was going,

even before LaRusso did.

So he is a big void in Daniel LaRusso's life

without Mr. Miyagi there for that guidance.

- Choose.

- Oh no, no.

- Ah, hey!

Hurt old man feelings.

- At a pivotal point in the middle of season one,

when Daniel LaRusso is completely off focus

and off the rails as far as his perspective,

he pays a visit to Mr. Miyagi's grave,

and there is a scene that sort of realigns his mind,

in finding his balance,

and he heads back to his house, and his home dojo,

and rebuilds it, and begins training again,

to not allow Cobra Kai

to contaminate the San Fernando Valley.

Putting the headband back on after 30-something years

was one of those special moments.

We made it like a religious moment for LaRusso,

and it felt powerful in its way,

because the headband was something

that became more and more famous and prevalent over time,

and for LaRusso it meant training,

and he hadn't done it in a while,

and to put that back on,

it was like a piece of youth back on his head.

Johnny's estranged son is Robbie Keene,

and he begins working at Daniel's auto dealership,

and then begins training in martial arts with LaRusso,

Unbeknownst to LaRusso that he is Johnny Lawrence's son,

so in essence, a piece of the dark side is in LaRusso's lap.

Even though he's taken this kid under his wing,

Cobra Kai does that so well.

We interlock characters in different directions,

from different prisms and perspectives,

and in this case it's one of the richest story points

in season one, that Johnny Lawrence's own kid

is training in Miyagi-Do's style with Daniel LaRusso.

The plot thickens.

So after Daniel and Johnny reconcile in episode nine,

what happens is they go back to LaRusso's house,

and they run into Robbie,

who as I mentioned is Johnny's estranged son.

Johnny had no idea that LaRusso was training Robby.

Daniel has no idea that Robbie is Johnny's son.

Fireworks.

What the hell is wrong with you?

- What the hell is wrong with you?

- I mean, it was just, what, what?

Their rivalry is