Daniel LaRusso
Daniel LaRusso is a fictional character and the main protagonist of The Karate Kid media franchise portrayed by Ralph Macchio. He was created by American screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen. Daniel is introduced as the titular protagonist of The Karate Kid and its sequels, The Karate Kid Part II and The Karate Kid Part III. Nearly three decades later, Macchio reprised the role in the sequel television series Cobra Kai, which concluded with its sixth season. Additionally, Macchio stars in Karate Kid: Legends, marking his first return as Daniel in a film from the franchise since the third installment.
In the first film, Daniel is depicted as an Italian-American 17-year-old who moves from New Jersey to the San Fernando Valley with his widowed mother Lucille. After becoming attracted to Ali Mills, Daniel becomes the target of bullying at the hands of Ali's arrogant ex-boyfriend and local karate champion Johnny Lawrence. To overcome the harassment, Daniel seeks tutelage in karate at the hands of his apartment's maintenance man Mr. Miyagi and is ultimately able to defeat Johnny at the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament. In the sequels, Daniel continues to train under Miyagi and accompanies him to Okinawa, while also continuing to come into conflict with Johnny's karate dojo, Cobra Kai.
In Cobra Kai, set decades after the original film, Daniel has become the owner of LaRusso Auto, the most profitable car dealership in the Valley, and has two children, Samantha and Anthony, with his wife Amanda. Whilst Daniel is generally content, despite the death of Miyagi, he becomes paranoid when Cobra Kai is reopened at the hands of Johnny and opens a new dojo called Miyagi-Do. After Johnny's old sensei John Kreese returns to the Valley to usurp Johnny as the sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, Daniel begrudgingly forms an alliance with Johnny to help put an end to the dojo.
Concept and creation
Writing
The concept for the character originated in the experiences of American screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen. At the 1964 World's Fair in New York he was bullied by a gang, an event that resulted in his decision to take up karate. After being trained by a Marine captain who taught him an aggressive fighting style, he moved on to Okinawan Gōjū-ryū, a more defensive martial art, where he was trained every day for four hours by a sensei who had himself been a student of Chōjun Miyagi. As a screenwriter, Kamen was mentored by Frank Price, chairman of Columbia Pictures, who called him about a potential story concept. He said that producer Jerry Weintraub had seen a news article about a nine-year-old who was being repeatedly bullied and started to attend karate classes where he was trained by mentor similar to Miyagi. Kamen then wrote the screenplay titled The Karate Kid, based on aspects of his own life. The final draft was completed on September, 15, 1983. Rather than writing an autobiography, Kamen wanted to write a story about his feelings for karate and having the ideal teacher. He incorporated Okinawan Gōjū-ryū into the screenplay but fabricated certain aspects for cinematic effect based on the blocking moves that he had learned, including "paint the fence" and "wax on, wax off". He initially named the protagonist "Daniel Webber" but decided to change it to "LaRusso" after seeing Ralph Macchio at audition.Casting and training
Several actors were considered for the title role of Daniel in September 1983, including Robert Downey Jr., Emilio Estevez, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Edwards, and Eric Stoltz. Casting director Bonnie Timmermann decided to bring 21-year-old Ralph Macchio to the role after remembering his performance in The Outsiders. Macchio had little experience of martial arts, having only had a few lessons at a Jui Jitsu school when he was around ten years old. After auditioning for the role, director John G. Avildsen advised him to take karate lessons. Kamen described Macchio as "a skinny little string bean of a kid" who had no coordination for martial arts. After showing him some blocking and punching moves, Kamen realized that Macchio knew nothing about martial arts, but this suited the character as he wanted him to be characterized as the "paradigmatic wimp". Martial arts choreographer Pat Johnson trained Macchio before filming began on October 31, 1983, at Leo Carrillo Beach. Johnson trained Macchio and Pat Morita in the Okinawan karate style, while William Zabka and the Cobra Kai actors were trained separately by Johnson in a more aggressive style. He worked with Macchio to perform a crane kick, which involved holding out his arms and balancing on one leg. Kamen admitted that he had fabricated the crane kick and that it was impossible but "cinematic". The cast spent three months training for the fight sequences. Macchio recalled that by the time of filming the final fight in the film they were so well trained that it was like a "dance routine" and few changes were needed. Macchio found a particular ease and a natural chemistry working with Morita and learned about aspects of Japanese-American culture from him, including using the hachimaki during training.Commercial success and return
Following the success of the first film, Macchio reprised his role in The Karate Kid Part II and The Karate Kid Part III. At the time of his casting, Columbia Pictures preempted the potential success of the first film with a three-film deal. Being in the early stages of his career, Macchio's part in The Karate Kid film transformed him into a box office star. Following the release of the first three films, Daniel LaRusso remained absent from the film franchise, being replaced by Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid, and Jaden Smith in the 2010 reboot The Karate Kid. Macchio said that he was never invited to appear in The Next Karate Kid alongside Morita and assumed that it was due to Avildsen and Kamen not being involved in the project. Macchio avoided returning to the character for 34 years, stating that he had turned down various offers to protect the character's legacy. When executive producers Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald pitched the concept for Cobra Kai, Macchio said that he was interested in their story development as they were fans of the film series, but described it as a "faith jump" to return to the character. Macchio felt that the nature of bullying had changed since 1984, but thought it was important to tackle the issue for a younger generation of viewers. He also stipulated that it was important for Mr. Miyagi to be a part of Daniel's life, despite the absence of Morita, who died in 2005. Macchio was also inspired by Creed, a film in the Rocky franchise. Both franchises were connected by Avildsen and a film featuring the sons of Rocky Balboa and Daniel had been considered but abandoned. In Cobra Kai, Macchio noted there were some slight changes to Daniel's personality: "He always had a kind of bravado and a little bit of a knee-jerk temper. But this was times 10 on Cobra Kai." After wrapping filming on the final season of Cobra Kai, Macchio went straight into the production of Karate Kid: Legends, feeling the necessity of carrying the emotion of what Daniel's mentor Mr. Miyagi meant to him and "paying it forward".Overview
Seventeen-year-old Daniel LaRusso moves with his mother Lucille from Newark, New Jersey to Reseda, California after she accepts a job offer at a computer firm. Shortly after moving to California, Daniel meets and starts a rivalry with Johnny Lawrence, the two-time defending champion of the All-Valley Karate Championship when Daniel becomes friends with his ex-girlfriend Ali Mills. After being jumped by Johnny and his Cobra Kai friends, he is saved by Mr. Miyagi, the maintenance man at his apartment building. Miyagi agrees to become his karate mentor. Through his training, Daniel becomes skilled enough to defeat Johnny in the tournament's final match.Over the summer, Daniel spends more time with Mr. Miyagi as they go to Okinawa, where Daniel meets a girl named Kumiko who becomes his love interest. He gets into a rivalry with Chozen, who is Sato's karate student and nephew. Daniel eventually defeats Chozen in a fight to the death, but instead of killing him, shows mercy to Chozen. After returning home, Daniel picks up one more karate championship in the All-Valley Tournament after being forced to compete in the tournament and defeats the national karate champion Mike Barnes, becoming a two-time champion, and ending Terry Silver and John Kreese's vision of opening up multiple Cobra Kai dojos all across the valley.
33 years later, Daniel is the owner of a successful car dealership in Southern California and is married to Amanda, with whom they have two children named Samantha "Sam" and Anthony. They live in a large home with a swimming pool in Encino. Despite his success as an adult, Daniel lacks the life balance that he had in his youth, due to the death of Mr. Miyagi in 2011. Daniel's interest in karate reignites after he learns of the return of the Cobra Kai dojo, now run by Lawrence. This drives Daniel to reopen Miyagi-Do and pass on his mentor's teachings to a new generation of students, resulting in rivalry between the two dojos.