Xolo Maridueña

Xolo Maridueña joins us to talk new season of 'Kobra Kai', 'Blue Beatle' and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With Mario little bita Mario Lopez joining me now on
Zoom from Cobra cot Actors Solo Matta Duena, Welcome back, brother,
thank you, Thank you so much Maria for having me.
I appreciate it. And this is this is funny. I've
I've done these these interviews with you at like miles
Stones in my life, so I feel like this every
time I meet back with you, I'm like, Okay, this

(00:22):
means something is happening in my life. I tell you what.
I'm so proud of you. I've been cheering you on
from the sidelines, so I'd like to think I'm a
bit of a good luck charm for you every time
I think that here. But no, man, last time we
um spoke, Um, you're right that the show's just continue
to blow up. I love it. You've been doing a great,
great job. And the martial arts skills are definitely going

(00:44):
next level. How's that? How's that treating you? Hey? Man?
Don't you're you're the one to talk about martial arts skills. Okay,
I saw I've seen you in there. I just said, yeah, yeah,
I've seen I've seen you in the in the ring
on Matt I don't. Yeah, I think. I think if
we introduced Mario Lopez to the to the Karate Kid universe,
I think it might it might be a little hard.

(01:06):
But the karate and the martial arts aspect is is
one of the most fun parts obviously of getting to
film the show and being able to you know, it's funny.
At this point, it feels less like karate and more
like mm A just on on the street. At first,
it felt fairly traditional. It felt like grassroots karate in
terms of stances and punches and moves and whatnot. And

(01:28):
now because the fights aren't happening in the dojos anymore,
they're happening in the schools and the streets of the valley.
It it I actually, I honestly like that a bit
more it um. It adds a more as realistic, I guess,
as twenty sixteen year olds punching each other. It makes
it feel a little bit more gritty. Yeah. No, it
looks very very cool, and I know a lot of

(01:50):
time is consumed to learn because with the choreography and
getting into it. So it's great, man, good for you.
It's funny because I've had um, I had Billy and
Ralph on my show, Yes, okay, which is more my era, right,
and those guys have been holding up pretty good right there.
So I was told, I said, hey, you need Lopez
to come, and I somehow I was like part of
the old Cobra Kai, We'll pass on the old timer's

(02:10):
right there, come for a little bit. But like I've
always said, I'm a huge fan and you guys are
doing such a great job. Season five is out now.
Um for those who may not be familiar, worthy things
pick up from regarding your character, you know. So uh.
One of the things that was highlighted about Miguel for
the first you know, four years, is this sense of

(02:32):
Johnny Lawrence, right, Billy Zafka. He is the father figure
that Miguel never really had growing up. And I think
that's where their bond really has its strengths, and it
has that codependency where Johnny has been trying to, you know,
take care of a kid his whole you know, since
since he's been a father, and he's kind of found
false with with that, and I've been trying to find

(02:53):
a father and now I think we've reached the end
of the line with that kind of I think every
thing that Miguel got out of this relationship maybe wasn't
all that he thought it was. So he embarks on
this on this journey to to Mexico to find his father,
and that's kind of where we start off in the season.

(03:13):
And then I think once he returns from that trip,
that's kind of when the rest of the dominoes will
fall into place. Oh, looking forward to that. Yeah, I
really liked the path they've taken with your character, for
for the dynamics you mentioned, and also just romantically too.
First I liked it with the first girl, and then
I was like, oh, damn, I like him with this
girl now, so keep it up. Player. There there we go.
Good job all the yes, I uh, you know, it's

(03:36):
a it's a pleasure working with with everyone on the show.
But yeah, Mary maryan pain especially and we'll see what that.
You know. I think that's one of the things that
albeit fairly um you know, te Novella e esque in
the relationships and whatnot. I think it it gives it
a little bit of a lighter tone than maybe, um,
you know, some of the other romance e um parts

(04:00):
of some of these shows. Yeah, no, I agree, and
and very exciting. Also in the works Blue Beetle DC Universe.
I mean, how did this how did this role come about? Bro,
tell me about the process this role came about? Really,
I mean it was. It was a lot of years
in the making. I I in terms of being a Latino,
there's like two superheroes who are my age or who

(04:20):
or at least like, let's say under twenty five, who
are in both universes, Marvel, d C, what have you.
And Blue Beetle is like the poster child of that
for at least in my opinion, for d C. And UM.
When it first announced that it was being made, I
was maybe fourteen or fifteen, and I was like, dang it,
I'm never gonna book this. This is I'm too young,

(04:41):
I'm too small. I'm not even six Like, well, I'm
still at six ft. I'm still waiting on that one.
But but um, but you know, by chance or by whatever,
you know, whatever you want to call it, the movie
ended up getting postponed and postponed, and they were cycling
through directors and writers and what have you, and then
you know, push come to shove turns out last year, Um,
I was able to get a meeting with all the director,

(05:04):
um this, um, you know Puerto Rican uh really really talented.
He did Charump City Kings for for HBO a few
years ago, and and we spoke and he and it
was basically like, oh, shoot, this is you know, the
connection was really there. And and then we he was like,

(05:26):
all right, let's do this. You're the guy that's awesome.
And I was like, wait, you are you sure you
don't want me to read any of the lines? Are you?
There's no like, no going back from this. Yeah. Now
I'm not that familiar with this particular car. What does
Blue Beetle do or what can you do? So? So
Blue Beetle, I would say in powers and in um,

(05:46):
you know aesthetically is similar to that of Iron Man,
and that he has a um it's an attachment to
scarab um. In Blue Beetles case, that attaches to his
back and deploys a suit, an alien suit over his body.
It's it's dope, super super cool. You would whoop Iron
Man's ass in a fight, for sure. Um. But I

(06:08):
mean that's neither here nor there. That that's just that's
strictly from the comic books. That's not a show low quote.
That's that's a comic um. But and then his hands,
he's also you know, known for being able to fly
in his hands can transform into tons of different weapons, swords,
like blasters. There's these um you know, kind of staples
for lack of better word that are like clamps that yeah. Wow.

(06:33):
But he's a really cool superhero. And you know, we
we just got wrapped up finishing are we just finished
up the movie a month or so ago. We'll go
into some reshoots and what like and stuff like that.
But this is I truly feel like when when you
hear the word diversity or or you know, these these

(06:53):
uh like buzzwords you know, floating around, and I think
that this movie really does capture the truth of what
it means to be not only Latino, but a person
of color as well. And I and and on on
every level on camera work, the writing, the directing, the acting.
I mean, you have we have a fellow Lopez, George
Lopez is in the is in the movie is as well.

(07:16):
So we're we're we're keeping it keeping it. Yeah, everyone
everyone's Latino. I love it. I love it. Man again,
I'm so happy and proud of you right there when
um is the movie expected to be released. It's expected
to be released August of next year now, but yeah,
it could fluctuate. But but so far, like I know,

(07:38):
some of the other movies have been moving around, but
that one has been fairly steady in August. So we'll see. Yeah, man,
cannot wait, cannot wait. Um, I didn't realize you also
have a podcast, Loan Lobos. Loan Lobos. That's right, what
are you talking? Abatically incorrect? But and it's funny and
it's concept Um, yes, I have a I have a
podcast with my co host, Jacob bertrand he is also

(08:02):
on Cobra Kai. He's the dude with the mohawk. Um,
you can't you can't miss him, and we we it's
like a current events podcast. I mean, we love uh
talking about the news, and I think it really gives
the audience a chance to learn about us without knowing
every intimate detail about our lives. You know, it's not
and it's not so much an anecdotal podcast and where

(08:25):
where we're telling our lives are talking about, um, you know,
where we come from or what have you. There, there's
a bit of that, but it's mainly you know, current events,
things happening in the world. Um, and we love to
do like advice on on. People will submit their problems
and we give our our You give your takes, we
give our Yeah, we give our hot takes. I'm gonna

(08:45):
have to check out loan Lobos right there. I like it.
Little play on loan Wolves. Good for you. Um, speaking
of hot takes. As busy as you are, does that
throw a monkey ranch into social life? You got anyone special?
What's up? Um? You know, I don't. I've had the
really blessed opportunity of kind of having not only Cobra Kai,
but this blue beetle thing happened over quarantine. You know,

(09:07):
when obviously we were on we were on YouTube premium
for for those first couple of years on Cobra Kai,
and it felt like we had a really intimate cult
fan base. Heading to Netflix was a whole different ball game, right.
It was overnight. It was talking about social both on
social media and also just with friends and family. It

(09:27):
was a really big change. But that happened at the
height of the pandemic to two falls ago, when everyone
was forced to say inside. It was like the perfect timing.
You know, I have I have facial hair glasses, long hair, earrings,
like I don't look the same as I do in
the show. So I've been really fortunate to kind of
still live this you know, quote unquote monotonous or kind

(09:47):
of incognito life. Um, we're able to take advantage of it. Yeah, no, definitely,
I mean it's it's perfect. It's funny. I mean when
when we're at with the boys from from the show,
it's funny to do with the mo always is getting
oh my god, is that Hawk from Cobra K this,
this and that, and he's always he's always uh, he's
always egging them on to be like Miguel sucks. He's

(10:10):
like the worst character. He's like, isn't he kind of
the worst And they're always like, oh yeah, yeah, I guess.
Well yeah, but so I wouldn't say it hurts the
social life. It um at least right now. Who knows. Yeah,
he continue to have fun player, Take it slow, take
it slow. Well, listen, I'm looking forward to seeing you

(10:32):
tomorrow and again, grats on everything and listen check out
season five Cobra Kai, out now on Netflix. Solo. Thanks
for taking the time, bro, Thank you. Broight On with
Mario Lopez