From Ryan Cordaro

I don’t have a lot of attachment to The Karate Kid. The last time I saw the first one was when I was really young, and I vaguely remember the reboot with Jackie Chan when that came out back in 2009. However, I feel like I’ve seen a lot more people talk about this little franchise in general when Cobra Kai, the Netflix series that spun off from the movies, really took off. It’s in its final season right now, and while I do know that this new movie, Karate Kid: Legends, is canon to the series, I’m not too sure how much is going to carry over. Either way, it feels like an exciting time to drop the first trailer for Legends, so Sony decided to bite and drop it earlier today.

Legends follows Li Wong, a martial arts prodigy who’s forced to move to New York City with his mother after a family tragedy. He can’t seem to fit in with his new classmates, on top of struggling to let go of his past. Eventually, he enters a karate competition, and when his teacher Mr. Han sees potential in him, he enlists Daniel LaRusso to help him dominate the competition and become the ultimate martial artist. I do like that they went with an open casting call for Li Wong, it definitely feels like they have to get someone who is a good actor on top of having the incredible martial arts skills that demands it. I was also shocked at how much I liked this trailer. I don’t have any sort of nostalgia for these movies, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good this looked. Maybe I’ll watch it later down the line because I haven’t seen Cobra Kai, but this looks fun enough.

Karate Kid: Legends includes returning cast members Ralph Macchio (The Outsiders, My Cousin Vinny) and Jackie Chan (Police Story, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem), and the new cast includes Ben Wang (American Born Chinese, Mean Girls), Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek, Doctor Odyssey), Sadie Stanley (The Goldbergs, Cruel Summer), Aramis Knight (Into the Badlands, Ms. Marvel), Ming-Na Wen (Mulan, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft), Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones, Tropic Thunder), and Wyatt Oleff (It, Guardians of the Galaxy).

Karate Kid: Legends will release in theaters via Sony on May 30th, 2025.

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