With Karate Kid: Legends currently playing in cinemas – it’s really good fun, by the way – and Cobra Kai only weeks behind us, star Ralph Macchio has been talking about what comes next in the franchise.
Taking place three years after Cobra Kai, Legends brings back Macchio as Daniel LaRusso and also brings back Jackie Chan’s Mr Han from the 2010 Karate Kid reboot and introduces Ben Wang as newcomer Li Fong and, aside from a very fun post-credit scene, has no connection to Cobra Kai, which was a surprise.
However, Macchio reveals that the movie was set to come on last Christmas, before Cobra Kai ended, but he was fighting against that: “I was screaming constantly every day: ‘This movie has to come out after [Cobra Kai] finishes,’” he said.
However, he always knew the story was post Cobra Kai: “Chronologically, [Karate Kid: Legends] was always set about three years after the events of Cobra Kai,” Macchio says. #
“Cobra Kai started in 2018, and so the kids on that show would be in their third year of college [during Karate Kid: Legends]. That was determined early on, and then it was about landing Daniel LaRusso in a way that feels like a natural evolution and progression when we see him three years later. That’s where my real focus was and how I would layer him into this fresh separate storyline. It’s like its own ecosystem in the grand universe.”
Ok, so we have this new story that technically links the two Karate Kid universes as well as the Cobra Kai series, but what comes next? We’ve reported in the past that a Mr Miyagi series is in development but is that still happening? “There are a few balls up in the air,” Macchio says
“You have to be diplomatically safe, and I don’t know which one is going to land. I hope all of them do, or some of them do, or one of them does. The success of Karate Kid: Legends could propel all that stuff. It’s different, but same. There’s a Miyagi-ism for you.”
Legends’ performance at the box office will likely play a part in the future expansion of the ‘Miyagi-verse’, but Cobra Kai is a proven hit on the small screen, so I would be very, very surprised if we didn’t see more Karate Kid/Cobra Kai shows in the near future.
And look, as long as William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence is in all of them, I see no problem.
Thoughts? I Know you have ’em and I wanna hear them all…
#FTN #KarateKidLegends isn’t going to win any Oscars but if you’re looking for a quick fix of fun that shakes up the formula and puts plenty of smiles on your face on a warm summer day, then this one is worth the ticket price.
Cobra Kai fans will want to sit until the credits… pic.twitter.com/Mkrvwoh11z— Following The Nerd (@nerdfollowing) May 28, 2025
Source: THR
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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