‘Cobra Kai’: Ralph Macchio Reveals Backup Plan If Elisabeth Shue Couldn’t Return for Season 3

Season 3 of Cobra Kai was released on New Year’s Day, and it has led to the show being the second-most view series on Netflix as of Tuesday afternoon. One of the big moments in the third season is the appearance of Elisabeth Shue who played the role of Ali Mills in The Karate Kid. She was teased to make an appearance at the end of Season 2 but was not officially signed on, according to CinemaBlend. Cobra Kai star Ralph Macchio recently spoke to reporters and revealed a backup plan if Shue couldn’t return.

“There was an alternate plan if she wasn’t available,” Macchio said. “That was the fallback, the ‘how are we gonna vacuum ourselves out of the room’ from what we’ve written, which would be her husband was doing the Facebook back-and-forth with Johnny.” One of the subplots of the third season is Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) re-connecting with Ali via Facebook. The two finally meet up when Ali returns to California and then invites him to an event that night. That is where they meet up with Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) and his wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler), and Ali explains to Daniel and Johnny why they have been rivals for over 30 years.

“It was so fun to realize that all of our chemistry was exactly the same,” Shue told Entertainment Weekly when talking about reuniting with Macchio and Zabka. “My chemistry with Ralph was the same, the same with Billy — it was odd! It was literally like a high school reunion; it felt like no time had passed. Like none at all.” Shue filmed here scenes in 2019 and it was not revealed she was going to be in Season 3 until it was released last weekend. It was a surprise to everyone watching as she is a big part of The Karate Kid story.

“It all started when I was working on The Boys,” Shue said when she was asked about the process of joining Cobra Kai. “I was working with this wonderful director, Dan Trachtenberg, who directed the pilot for The Boys. To be honest, I really hadn’t thought about being on Cobra Kai. When I showed up on the set [of The Boys] for the first day, Dan came right over and said, ‘You’re doing Cobra Kai, right?’ I was like, ‘What? I don’t know… Do you think that’s a good idea?’ He goes, ‘Is that a good idea? You have to be on Cobra Kai!‘ I said, ‘Why, why do you care so much?’ He said, ‘You have no idea how important The Karate Kid is in my life.’”