COBRA KAI Season 3 Big Surprise Reveal Discussed and Details on How It All Came Together

If you haven’t watched all of Cobra Kai Season 3 yet, you might want to hold off on reading this article as it focuses on one of the big surprises revealed in the series.

Oscar-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue is known for roles in films like Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, Leaving Las Vegas, Back to the Future II & III, The Saint, and her recent role on the series The Boys, but she is probably best known for her role of Ali with an I in the original Karate Kid film. Fans have been clamoring for her to show up in the hit reboot series Cobra Kai since it began back in 2018, and while it was teased that it may be in the cards, nothing was official until this past week. If you haven’t watched Season 3 of Cobra Kai yet and you hope to avoid spoilers, now would be a good time to stop reading.

In a fun surprise, Season 3 of Cobra Kai has brought back Ali! Shue returned to the story in a two-episode arc that was so incredibly fun. Shue talked about the process of coming back in a recent interview with EW. When asked how her appearance came about she recalled this funny story:

It all started when I was working on The Boys. 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.”

He told me what a great movie it is and how much he loved Cobra Kai, and that it would just be devastating — “devastating,” he kept saying — for the fans and for the memory of The Karate Kid if I wasn’t [on the show]. I was like, “Whoa – okay!” It was just very sweet, and it made me think, Oh, I haven’t really investigated this. Then I sat down with the three producers and writers who created it, Jon [Hurwitz], Josh [Heald], and Hayden [Schlossberg], and they were so lovely and similar to Dan — super Karate Kid fans. They really wanted to wait and have Ali come back this season, primarily I guess because it’s a reunion season. I said, “I’ll do whatever you need.”

That’s great! I know that Trachtenberg was just saying what we were all feeling, so it’s awesome that she got that feedback. She went on to talk about watching the show while deciding how to play her character again:

I watched the whole first season after [the producers and I] met, and I was incredibly impressed with the writing, the structure of it… I wondered how Ali would even fit in to that story. It didn’t feel like there was a place for her. But then when I saw how they actually structured the show and the sort of beautiful immaturity of the characters, who haven’t really grown up as much as you would hope in 35 years, I can see why Ali would still be a part of their journey.

She talked fondly about reuniting with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka:

It was so fun to realize that all of our chemistry was exactly the same. 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. We kept reminiscing and laughing, constantly reliving the first Karate Kid every minute between takes. Non-stop reminiscing about our experience and laughing about what a great movie it turned out to be.

Over the years, I think — you know, you get asked about it so much, and as a way to talk about it on talk shows and things I started to have this sort of storyline about making fun of it just a bit. Because at the time, Karate Kid, it sounded like, what kind of movie is that? I would even make fun of Ralph, like, “He didn’t look like anyone who could win a karate tournament!” I just had this way of talking about it. We kind of laughed about that a lot and how we were always giving each other crap over the years. What was really nice was just a lot of resolution in terms of appreciation for what an important movie it was in all of our lives.

It was my first movie, and Ralph was this big movie star. He was in a double banger, which is like one big trailer cut in half, and then we were in Honeywagons, which were these teeny boxes. We were all so jealous that he had a manager — like whoa, he’s so important. [laughs] We were all beginners. I remember [during] the break the radio scene, every time I hit [William], I was always hitting him too hard.

When asked about Johnny and Ali’s near kiss moment at their Golf N’ Stuff date, Shue said:

One thing that was just so incredible was to realize that Billy and I, in the original Karate Kid, we never ever spoke to each other except to punch each other, to throw a radio into the sand. We never got to have a [normal] scene. So I loved getting a chance to do that. In [Cobra Kai], we talked and communicated and acted together, and I loved that. So that was really surprising and wonderful to almost start a new relationship really.

But yeah, I would have been up for a kiss. Are you kidding me? I’m bummed! They could have had a kiss! I think it was in deference to wanting Johnny to feel that he could go back to his relationship [with Carmen], which meant so much to him, without feeling that he had anything to feel conflicted about. I'm sure that was the reason. Other than that, I would've gone right in there and gotten a great one. [laughs]

Shue went on to add that the impact Ali’s return had on the series and its two main characters was all thanks to the writers. She was able to have a beautiful arc that impacted her character as well as Daniel and Johnny’s, and it was really meaningful to them all. As for the future of Ali in the Cobra Kai universe, Shue joked:

Well, we already have a plan. It’s going to be season nine. Ali is going to come back to the Valley and start her own dojo, and it’s going to be a three-way fight for the soul of the Valley. [laughs]

She is so much fun! It’s so awesome to hear what a great time they had filming these episodes, and it really came through onscreen. Cobra Kai Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix. What did you think of Ali’s return?