The all-time favorite film, The Karate Kid did put the actor Ralph Macchio on the map of the Hollywood industry. The then-star kid, Macchio featured in the trilogy of Karate Kid with the first instalment of the film, launched in 1984. However, despite gaining worldwide recognition, the American actor chose not to feature in the 1994 film, The Next Karate Kid, from the same franchise.
Despite repeated discussions regarding rebooting the franchise, he constantly refused to move further with it. At the current time, the 61-year-old actor has reprised his role as Daniel LaRusso in the famous series, Cobra Kai. Ralph Macchio had to lend his ear to numerous non-worthy ideas for rebooting the Karate Kid franchise, in the last three decades. One among them even replicated the idea of Star Wars.
Ralph Macchio Was Pitched An Idea To Reboot The Karate Kid Franchise In Star Wars Way
Back in the nineties, Ralph Macchio was reluctant to the reboot ideas that were pitched in. But given the success of Cobra Kai in recent times, there is no denying that it happened for the good. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel on JimmyKimmelLive, he was asked whether any ideas were there regarding rebooting the series in the past and did he reject any, to which he said,
“Over the years I was very hesitant to go back, I just felt the Karate Kid film and that franchise was so like I said beloved by fans that I didn’t want to mess with it. But yeah, over the years I would get, you know, you know what I think it came more from the perspective of people wanting to see more of it, less than how could we help that”
When further asked by Jimmy Kimmel about the idea the 61-year-old American actor had to listen and couldn’t ignore it, he said, “Well, you know, Miyagi comes back as a ghost, and leads you from the heavens.” This was the particular pitch that’s related to The Star Wars Universe. The concept of Jedi getting revived as Ghosts is an important and magical aspect of their existence.
After the actor conveyed it, Both Ralph Macchio and Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about how this is a clever idea and it’s still not too late. In reply, he went ahead with one more idea that he considers one of his favorites. It is about the Crossover of Karate Kid and Rocky Balboa.
The Most Ridiculous Yet Favorite Idea of Ralph Macchio That didn’t make through
The Cobra Kai series was released back in 2018 and is presently in its fifth season. The fans loved the idea of how The Karate Kid franchise got rebooted with the new name, Cobra Kai. But The Karate Kid actor produced the idea that is his favorite but still got declined. According to EnterteinmentWeekly, an excerpt from Macchio’s upcoming memoir Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me, revealed the most ridiculous idea he has ever heard.
“It was basically a version of this: ‘What if Rocky Balboa had a kid and Daniel-san had a kid and they were both fu**ups and you, Ralph and Stallone, come together between New Jersey and Philadelphia to join in a Miyagi/Mickey style of fight training. People would go nuts,”
Even, in the interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Macchio spoke about this, and how two writers approached him for it. Though He considered it the best reboot idea, the film director back then gave a complete No and it didn’t stand a chance.
Thus, although the crossover between two legendary franchises sounds good, it was a partially baked idea. Cobra Kai series revived the Karate Kid trilogy after three decades and there is no harm in saying that it was simply amazing. Cobra Kai has a RottenTomato score of 94%.
Cobra Kai is currently streaming on Netflix.
Source: JimmyKimmelLive, EnterteinmentWeekly
