Ralph Macchio is happy and satisfied with how has completed Daniel LaRusso's The Karate Kid arc, but he still has one more story about Daniel-san he wants to tell - and direct. Macchio starred in three The Karate Kid movies before reprising Daniel LaRusso in Cobra Kai over 30 years later. Macchio returned as Daniel once more in Karate Kid: Legends opposite Jackie Chan and Ben Wang.

Before accepting Newport Beach TV Fest's Artist of Distinction award from his The Karate Kid Part II co-star, Tamlyn Tomita, Ralph Macchio joined the Cobra Kai panel with castmates Mary Mouser and Yuji Okumoto, as well as executive producers Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, and Josh Heald. before The Karate Kid, and ideally, direct it. Read Ralph's quote below:

If there’s anything, for me, that I wanted to see in the show, we’ve all discussed it, and it’s an area that I’ve always wanted to tackle, and I don’t know if there’ll ever be room for it in the right entity, but You never see him really address that. You know, the first fifteen years of your life is stuff you talk about forever. So there is no real room. I know we tried, sort of, ways to go back to that.

The through-line of Johnny Lawrence’s trajectory, and seeing all of his past, his youth, we were able to do. That’s an area… I would love to direct that [Daniel’s origin], whatever that might be, if it ever… But it would have to make sense in the larger arc of where it lands. But it is an area that would be interesting, I think.

Daniel LaRusso's story has been well covered, but Ralph Macchio is right that little is known about who Daniel's father was before he left New Jersey at the start of The Karate Kid. Part of the reason why which is something he discussed in his New York Times bestselling autobiography, "Waxing On: The Karate Kid & Me." However, The Karate Kid glossed over Daniel missing his mysterious father to focus on his relationship with Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita).

Ralph Macchio directed Cobra Kai season 6, episode 3, "Sleeper," which is an experience he enjoyed, as Ralph discussed at Newport Beach TV Fest. Macchio has designs on telling Daniel's origin story about his father, though it's unclear what format that could be. Daniel's history pre-Karate Kid would have to be a period piece set in the early 1980s, and would require finding someone to play a young LaRusso. However, if it happens.

Cobra Kai season 1 delved into Johnny Lawrence's (William Zabka) backstory and revealed his troubled childhood. Ralph Macchio is right that Daniel LaRusso has a notable gap in his childhood story. Ralph said Cobra Kai did touch on how Daniel met his wife, Amanda (Courtney Henggeler), and some of what happened after the events of The Karate Kid Part III as Daniel became an adult, and started a business and family.

If there is a compelling story to tell about who Daniel LaRusso's father was before The Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio is the ideal person to tell it, and direct as a movie or TV series. Daniel's origin would be set in New Jersey in the early 1980s, which would be fascinating juxtaposed to how Johnny grew up in the San Fernando Valley. still has infinite stories to tell in the Miyagiverse, and there would be no one better to fill the holes in Daniel LaRusso's history than Ralph Macchio himself.

Source: Newport Beach TV Fest