‘Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña Talks Series’ ‘Karate Kid’ Legacy

Over 30 years ago, The Karate Kid gave audiences one of the quintessential high school bullies of the 80s with Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso’s rival. Now, the new YouTube Red series Cobra Kai will see Johnny reopening the infamous Cobra Kai dojo and reignite that rivalry. However, if you’re thinking that Cobra Kai will be all about redemption, you might need to check your expectations.

Xolo Maridueña, who plays Johnny’s student Miguel in the series, recently spoke with ComicBook.com about the upcoming series and said that, while reopening Cobra Kai is definitely part of Johnny’s (William Zabka) journey he wouldn’t quite call it a redemption.

“I’m not so sure this is a redemption for Johnny, it’s definitely part of Johnny’s own Hero’s Journey and of course he is Miguel’s unwilling sensei,” Maridueña said. “It’s the unfolding of that relationship that has Johnny making paralells.

In Cobra Kai Maridueña’s Miguel, raised by a single mom from Ecuador, finds himself struggling with bullies at his new school. It’s a scenario that puts Miguel in a similar position to that of Danny (Ralph Macchio) in The Karate Kid. With Johnny becoming his mentor of sorts, it’s certainly a situation would prompt paralells, but Maridueña also insists the show is about so much more than bullying.

“I’m going to say that there isn’t so much a direct addressing of bullying as a highlighted theme, but it’s more of a subtext for the series,” Maridueña explained. “I think you can tell from some of the trailers that Johnny isn’t a shiny, happy, kind of guy so he isn’t going to look at bullying so much as an epidemic whereas more of a sidebar.”

What will be front and center is the continuation of the Karate Kid legacy. With the original film so iconic, keeping Daniel and Johnny’s complicated relationship up front is important to ther series. But that doesn’t mean that Maridueña didn’t feel pressure to live up to the original film. The actor said that not only did he train hard to be ready for the role — three hours a day on filming days and six on non-filming days — he had a voice in his head keeping him on track as well.

“Not too much pressure because the center of focus is going to rightfully be on the complex relationship that Daniel and Johnny have,” Maridueña said. “However, on a personal level, I absolutely had the ‘don’t f*** it up’ voice in my head. The weight of this legacy is strong on my shoulder but the creators of the show have really made the story unfold in a way that will be culturally relevant to the viewer by interpretation.”

Cobra Kai debuts on YouTube Red on May 2.

Are you looking forward to this sequel series to The Karate Kid? Let us know in the comments below!