William Zabka Shares Cut Audition Scene From THE KARATE KID, What the Next Season of COBRA KAI Entails

Cobra Kai has made the leap from beloved film franchise to successful spin-off series. The show gains more viewership every season, especially after having made the move to Netflix for its third season, and it has seemingly gotten more exciting and more fun to watch season after season. This upcoming season is rumored to be pulling out all the stops, and William Zabka, who plays Johnny Lawrence in the films and series, sat down with Collider this week and talked about Season 4, his Karate Kid audition, and the possibility of directing an episode of the series in the future.

First, Zabka talked about how he came to be cast as Johnny Lawrence, auditioning with a scene that was ultimately cut:

“It was a scene that was cut out of the film, funny enough. I think it’s out there somewhere in the rehearsal form. It’s the scene where I confront Daniel at school right before the tournament and I hand him a death certificate. He’s at a water fountain and he says, ‘What’s this?’ I say, ‘You gotta get your mommy to sign that so you can be in the tournament with the big boys.’ And then he says, ‘I thought it was supposed to be no contact,’ and then I say, ‘Yeah, well accidents happen.’ And then I turn and walk away, he goes, ‘Hey, you think he might be wrong?’ And I say, ‘Who?’ He goes, ‘Your sensei, you think he might be wrong?’ And then my line is, ‘Watch your mouth, asshole.’ So that was my scene and I walked up, I grabbed John Avildsen and said, ‘Watch your mouth asshole!’ I had a headband on in my audition. I exited the room in this dramatic fashion and then came back in, took my headband off and sat down in front of John and said, ‘I’m sorry. That was Johnny, that wasn’t Billy.’ He got very like, ‘Hm. So how old are you? You’re a little bigger than our karate kid.’ I said, ‘Yeah well, Bruce Lee was smaller than Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but he beat him.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, that’s true, that’s true.’”

I like that he made a good case for Johnny! I can’t imagine anyone else in the role, especially the series as an adult. He brings such heart to the role. Zabka went on to add his hopes for directing an episode of the series in the future, under the right circumstances:

“I’ve thought about it. Kicked [it] around, talked to the guys about that and maybe that’s in the cards. I think at this point we’ve been along for now four seasons, the rhythm’s there, all the actors know each other, we trust each other, the machine’s working. I mean, we have an amazing crew, amazing crew and cast. This thing happened so fast. We threw these episodes together pretty quick. An incredible schedule. Some of the hours are 12, 14 hours, sometimes 16-hour days and it takes all of us at the same time to do that, so if I was gonna direct, it would take a lot of extra time. So when the right episode comes, with all my heart I would love to do that. I see that in the cards. I’m not angling for that, but when it’s right.”

As for what we can expect for the next season, Zabka said:

"The writers are doing their thing, we’re putting our heart on our sleeves… I’m shooting big and wide and the stories are deep and wide. I think we’re going to deliver a great season 4."

He went on to add, about Johnny’s Season 3 transformation:

"It’s a complicated feeling. For one, Daniel pretty much saved him… I think he’s purged at that moment. There’s an emptiness of it, but he’s empowered with Daniel and it’s a good feeling of burying the hatchet. There’s an intensity – they have a common foe in Kreese now. The feeling of that was relief in the sense of ‘I have a partner’ and we have the same goal here… We want this to work, and here we go."

The end of Season 2 was devastating, and the ending of Season 3 was so hopeful. It was so exciting to see Johnny and Daniel finally on the same page, teaming up against the true common enemy, John Kreese, and the impending return of Terry Silver. I can’t wait to get back to the series for Season 4 to see what happens!

Cobra Kai returns to Netflix for Season 4 later this year. What do you hope happens in the upcoming season?