Warning: SPOILERS for Cobra Kai season 3
Elisabeth Shue says she hadn’t seen her The Karate Kid co-stars in years before doing Cobra Kai season 3. The newest season of Cobra Kai did what many fans have been hoping for since the beginning. Since the series revolves around Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zapka), there has been a lot of hope that Shue would return as Ali Mills. Ali was the primary love interest in The Karate Kid, with Daniel’s interest in her sparking the rivalry between him and Johnny.
Cobra Kai season 2 included some teases that Ali would be part of the show’s future, but it was not confirmed ahead of time that she’d appear. This allowed most viewers to be pleasantly surprised when Shue appeared late in season 3. Ali’s return for Cobra Kai didn’t include her saving Miguel Diaz or being the mother of Tory, which were both popular fan theories. Instead, Ali’s role in season 3 amounts to hanging out with Johnny for a day. While it momentarily looks like their romance could be rekindled, Ali helps Johnny move forward (with his eyes now on Carmen Diaz) and begin to mend fences with Daniel.
Now that Cobra Kai season 3 is out on Netflix, the cast is able to talk about what the new episodes entail. This included Shue sitting down with EW for an interview to discuss her long-awaited return to the Karate Kid franchise. In the interview, Shue was asked how long it had been since she saw Macchio and Zapka. Outside of a quick run-in here and there, it was decades.
“Well I ran into Billy at Comic-Con oddly enough for The Boys, just a few months before. Ralph, we ran into each other, he reminded me, once in 1986 at a Mets game, and I had not laid eyes on him since then. When we first saw each other I was just in shock. I said, “Oh God,” and then that’s exactly what he says to me when he sees me for the first time in the episode.”
Shue filmed her scenes for Cobra Kai in 2019, so nearly 35 years had passed since she first met Macchio and Zapka during The Karate Kid. Viewers might have a difficult time believing they haven’t seen each other in so long, though, since Shue’s scenes with them quickly re-establish her on-screen chemistry with both. Cobra Kai even provides a much better glimpse at Ali and Johnny’s relationship, which gave Shue and Zapka a lot of fun scenes together. Shue wasn’t even convinced that she should return at first, but thankfully her experience on The Boys led to Ali’s return.
Now that Ali has returned for a small role in Cobra Kai, many will understandably want to know if she’ll be back in future seasons. Netflix has already ordered a fourth season, but it is not confirmed if Shue is part of the cast in any capacity. The beauty of Ali’s role in Cobra Kai is that it could easily be the only time she appears, and it would still be satisfying. But, there is also a lot of room for her story to evolve, and the writers could undoubtedly figure out a way for Ali to be more involved if Shue was interested in doing more. Whatever the future holds for Shue on Cobra Kai, let’s just hope another 35 years don’t pass before she, Macchio, and Zapka see each other.
Source: EW
Originally from https://screenrant.com/cobra-kai-season-3-elisabeth-shue-costar-decades/