Before you return to Netflix’s beloved The The karate kid spin-off series Cobra Kai, Elisabeth ShueAli Mills’ character had not been seen since the original film’s release. While Shue seemed destined to return as… Ralph Macchio‘s girlfriend in the sequel, her character was instead written out of the franchise in one line, with Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso stating that they had broken up. In a recent interview with the guardMacchio discussed his regret at how Shue’s character was treated all those years later.
“I’ve never looked at it from the perspective of Ali’s character or from the perspective of Elisabeth as an actor,” said de . Cobra Kai actor. “As an older person, there was an acknowledgment of missteps, of things I should have done differently.”
Feeling remorse for not talking to Shue at the time or going up against the producers of The Karate Kid Part IIhe added: “I don’t know. They probably would have said to me, ‘Go out, Macchio, and start practicing your karate kicks…’ Today I think there would be another conversation. ‘
“Women in movies were often considered disposable items,” Macchio continued. “I see that now. Then? I did not see it. It was a matter of wasting young people on young people. I was swept up in everything that happened in my life.”
In recent years, Shue has talked about the not-so-great feeling of being unsubscribed The karate kid film series and her eventual retribution of Ali in Cobra Kai.
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“In The Karate Kid 2, my character was kind of pushed aside in a way that didn’t feel so great. So it’s funny how the idea of Ali coming back [started],” said the boys actor to ABC News Radio back in 2019. “At first I thought, ‘Well, her character really has the world of… The karate kid in a way that wasn’t so great…would people care if she comes back?’”
Fans of the original series and Cobra KaiThe series’ creators cared very much to get her back, prompting Shue to return as Ali in season three of the hit series. Working with series creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, Schue helped refine the story behind her character’s disappearance. The spin-off series added a more solid explanation based on: Daniel’s failure as a teenage boy to communicate, rather than that one The Karate Kid Part II indicated that she was leaving him for a UCLA football player.
“We didn’t like that reason. Elisabeth didn’t like that reason. So we tried to come up with a way to find a way that wouldn’t make Daniel a liar, but would also give Ali her own side of the story,” Schlossberg said during an interview. interview with Insider for 2021.