Much like Ralph Macchio couldn’t escape his association with The Karate Kid franchise and ultimately embraced his return for Cobra Kai and the upcoming Karate Kid: Legends as Daniel LaRusso, William Zabka, who plays his rival Johnny Lawrence since the 1984 original film, also embraced his legacy in the franchise even playing a fictionalized version of himself on multiple projects including CBS’s How I Met Your Mother appearing in seasons eight and nine. Speculation was rampant around the TKK fan community if the actor’s appearance on the Carter Bays and Craig Thomas-created sitcom led to the Sony TV series spinoff Cobra Kai, which originally premiered on YouTube in 2018 for their Red service before it found a home on Netflix, currently in its sixth and final season.
After the fan at GalaxyCon Raleigh in North Carolina asked Zabka, he responded (via The Pop Verse), “That’s a great question. A lot of people ask that and wonder that, including Neil Patrick Harris himself. We’ve talked about this. I think that having Barney Stinson (Harris) embrace Johnny Lawrence as the real hero of The Karate Kid didn’t hurt anything, and you know he also thought that Darth Vader and Hans Gruber were also the heroes of their movies, so you know where he was coming from.”
Zabka is a little perplexed about whether he belonged compared to his present company, “To show up on a hit network show that was an Emmy-winning show and do the whole ninth season, I’m so thankful to that, to the writers, to the directors, to the entire cast, I love those people. It was really surreal to be there. I come in, and I’m playing Billy Zabka, so I’m sitting at a table with Neil Patrick Harris, but you just see all their names: Barney Stinson, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), and then Billy Zabka as himself. And I’m like, how am I even here.” The actor made his series debut in the season eight episode “The Bro Mitzvah,” guest starring alongside Macchio in his lone appearance before Zabka returned for a recurring role the following season.
Cobra Kai Star Zabka on HIMYM Possibly Sparking “Karate Kid” Revival
