It was first announced in early 2020 that the third season of would take the original Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), back to Japan, the setting for The Karate Kid Part II. Since then, we’ve learned that some familiar faces from the movie will appear this season, and gotten hints at what brings Daniel back to Okinawa in the first place.
The first video for the new season teased the possibility that Mr. Miyagi held back some secrets from Daniel–secrets that Daniel’s Karate Kid Part II rival (Yuji Okumoto) knew. While those have yet to be revealed, Macchio spoke to GameSpot about another piece of information his character learns about Miyagi while in Japan.
“Being over there and tapping into Miyagi’s life and learning the importance of Daniel-san to Mr. Miyagi versus it only being one direction was really important,” the actor said. “To hear that information and to learn that information was so moving and yet fulfilling to Daniel LaRusso.”
As for the other secrets Daniel might learn about his late mentor and father-figure, Macchio simply teased, “[Okinawa is] a place to do a deeper dive and learn something about him or learn something about Miyagi that he didn’t know that could inform his life and stories going forward.”
For fans of Karate Kid Part II, though, the return of not only Chozen, but the film’s love interest Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), are sure to be exciting moments. Naturally, they were for Macchio as well. “It was a great usage of lead characters from Karate Kid Part II, in the lovely and talented Tamlyn Tomita as Kumiko and the most awesome Yuji Okumoto as Chozen, and then even other surprise characters from Karate Kid Part II that drive the story forward,” he said.
As for who those other surprise characters could be, Macchio made sure not to spoil what was to come.
Cobra Kai Season 3 premieres on Netflix in January 2021.
