Behind the Scenes

Casting

As much as I'd like to leave casting decisions to the reader, it was too fun to think about who would have played the new roles. Even though this is an alternate timeline to our own, I tried to pick people who could have conceivably (age and career-wise) been cast in the film circa 1988.

The Making of the Novel

Self-Imposed Limitations

While plotting this story, I found it helpful to employ some self-imposed limitations. First, I wanted to make sure that every scene was from Daniel's perspective, correcting what I felt was a big fault of the original Part III. I also decided to approach this not as a novel, but as a novelization of a film, thus the short chapters and emphasis on dialogue over description. Another was that the film would be made in the same time frame as the original Karate Kid Part III, filmed in 1988, released in 1989. I also decided that I would work within the timeline of the original, picking up right as Daniel and Mr. Miyagi return from their trip to Okinawa in The Karate Kid Part II. On this latter point it was tempting to move the events ahead a year or two, because it always bothered me how much older Ralph Macchio looks in Part III compared to the first two films, even though it's supposed to take place less than a year later. 

Daniel’s Age

Speaking of Daniel’s age, it presented an unexpected challenge. Most evidence regarding the first film is that Daniel is 15 years-old, turning 16 right before the All-Valley Under-18 Tournament. This is never said outright in the film, but his age is confirmed as being 15-16 in the novelization by B.B. Hiller, specifically in reference to Daniel getting his driver’s license on his birthday. 

But Karate Kid Part II throws a monkeywrench, not only having Daniel attend the senior prom with Ali*, but also making multiple references to Daniel going to college. The original Part III continued that because Daniel clearly doesn't return to high school (which means he was probably turning 19 before the tournament and therefore competing against Mike Barnes illegally, but I digress). When you take into account all the evidence from Karate Kid and Karate Kid Part II films, there’s a better case to be made that Daniel was 17 turning 18 in the first film.

*I’m not sure whether Ali was originally intended to be a senior. All we know for sure is that Johnny is a senior (he mentions it in his first lines in the first film). 

Research

I had approximately four main sources for research:

1. The Karate Kid (1984)

The first and by-far most prominent was the first film.  It does such an amazing job of building this believable world for these characters, and a big part of that is the bits of seemingly throwaway dialogue that reveal parts of their pasts. As you can see from reading, I used a lot of that as starting points - Uncle Louie, Aunt Tessy, Parsippany, Tony, Judy, Kevin, Kenny, Daniel taking karate at the YMCA).

Another element that came from studying the first film was my approach to humor. The first movie, for all its dramatic heft, has a lot of funny dialogue and moments, something that got lost as the films progressed. I think this is also true of Daniel’s character. In the original Part III and Cobra Kai he’s a bit of a sour stick-in-the-mud. The Daniel in the first movie was a confident, fast-talking wiseacre. A third element I took from the original film was the idea that it wasn’t really about karate at all. It was about a friendship between two people who were each able to fill a void in the others’ life. I won’t lie, the karate part was cool, but I feel the original Part III and Cobra Kai didn’t get the right balance of character and karate, weighing far too heavily on the latter.

2. The Karate Kid original screenplay

I stumbled across Robert Mark Kamen’s original screenplay for the first movie (thanks, Internet!) and that allowed me to pluck out some elements that were discarded in the film (see below). 

3. Google Maps

Thanks to the Internet and superfans, I was able to find the exact street where the opening shot of The Karate Kid - in which Daniel and Lucille leave New Jersey - was filmed. It was on Franklin Avenue in Harrison, New Jersey, just a couple blocks east of Newark. From there, I used Google Maps to plot out the locations I used in the last two-thirds of the story (again, see below), I even went so far as to verify that the places mentioned were indeed open in fall of 1985 (when the story is set).

4. YouTube

I don’t know a lot about karate or kickboxing, so instructional videos and footage of late 1980s kickboxing matches were invaluable when I was coordinating the fight scenes.

Easter Eggs

In lieu of just going ahead and creating an annotated version of the book, I will instead share the following bits of trivia:

• Aunt Tessy is mentioned just once in the first movie, and we don’t know for sure that she’s even Uncle Louie’s wife, but I went ahead and made it so.

• Johnny ascending to lead sensei of Cobra Kai (the dojo) was a nod to Cobra Kai (the show).

• Tensho kata is a real thing, invented by Chojun Miyagi (which is where Robert Mark Kamen got Mr. Miyagi’s name; it’s an Easter egg inside an Easter egg).

• A couple of Daniel’s frustrating experiences in the early chapter (getting evicted; getting a bad grade on an essay) may have been semi-autobiographical.

• The story Daniel tells about “borrowing” Mr. Maletta’s truck was adapted from a scene that was in the Karate Kid screenplay but didn’t make it into the film. It also revealed that Daniel and Lucille’s preferred pie was a sausage with extra cheese.

• I gave Kevin and Kenny the last name Webber as a nod to the original last name Robert Mark Kamen gave Daniel (before Ralph Macchio got the part and the character became Italian).

• The character of Tony appears for about 10 seconds (along with Judy and Kevin and Kenny) in the opening scene of The Karate Kid. None of the actors are even listed in the credits, but I pegged Tony as the littlest one. (Lucille strangely requests that he “Tell Uncle Louie I put the parmesan and the red wine in the fridge.”

• I chose Leonardo as Daniel’s father’s name because it’s a good Italian name (Leo LaRusso!) and as a nod to the other martial arts phenomenon of the ‘80s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

• I chose to have Leo be a mechanic for New Jersey Transit because I wanted him to have a blue collar job that acknowledged Newark’s status as as a mass transit hub).

• The description of Daniel’s old high school is based on the actual building as viewed on Google Maps (Harrison High has since moved and Washington Middle School took over the space).

• Same for the YMCA, which is just where it’s described in the book. I figure it’s conceivable that Daniel rode his bike over there for classes.

• Hinze’s Deli is a real place and is still in business as of 2025.

• Gina’s Pizzeria is a real place and is still in business as of 2025.

• The location I chose for Wilson’s Gym was likely never a boxing gym, but in 2025 it’s a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy.

• Speaking of Wilson’s Gym, I named it after famous kickboxer Don “The Dragon” Wilson. Similarly, the trainer is called Pete after kickboxing legend Pete Cunningham.

• Kenny’s mention to a newspaper article about Daniel’s tournament win is an reference to the fact that the original idea for The Karate Kid came from a newspaper article about an elementary school kid who was being bullied and then successfully pursued a black-belt. Producer Jerry Weintraub optioned the story, which eventually led to the movie.

• Kenny’s words to Daniel at the end of their first sparring match are the words Daniel says to him in that first 30 seconds of the first movie.

• I adapted Miyagi’s teeth and tongue lesson from a Confucian parable.