William Zabka Got Real About How ‘Cobra Kai’ Has Completely Changed ‘The Karate Kid’ Fan Reaction To Him

Cobra Kai recently (and already) wrapped shooting on Season 4 following an infuriatingly good third season and all signs pointing toward more seasons to come for The Karate Kid revival. Last week, the show revealed (in a teaser) that the return of Terry Silver was definitely happening, so we know that John Kreese called in help for his dojo to go up against the combined efforts of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence’s charges. That those two are working together is really something, all those years after the questionable crane kick changed Johnny’s life forever.

The reputation of the Johnny Lawrence character carried over into William Zabka’s life, too. At the very least, it affected his experiences at Comic-Con events, where (as Zabka told Marc Maron on the WTF Podcast) things went a lot better for Ralph Macchio, whose character was long considered the definitive “good guy” of the franchise. Those fan interactions are much friendlier now for the man who portrays Lawrence (good guys come in many varieties, as it turns out), as Zabka told Maron:

“It’s a trip,” Zabka said of getting used to the experience. “I love it now because up until [Cobra Kai] I was the table that the dads would walk up and go, ‘I just want my kid to meet you. This guy was the biggest a**hole. Nice to meet you.’ And they would walk away.”

He continued, with Maron in hysterics, “Now, I got people coming up and going, ‘Hey, I love you on the show. Johnny is cool now.'”

Hell yeah, Johnny is cool now, especially after we’ve seen Martin Kove continue to remind us how terrible he was (and still is) as a sensei. By the way, Zabka also told Maron that he’s the guy who told Kove about the revival series, and that led to Kove “immediately want[ing] in.” And thank goodness for that development. Now, I’m still rooting for the show to answer one significant question. Fingers crossed!