Trailer: Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio star in The Karate Kid: Legends
A major trailer for the upcoming movie is a viral YouTube hit.
We’re just a little over 40 years on from the first The Karate Kid film’s release, and a trailer for the upcoming 2025 The Karate Kid: Legends has just dropped.
While it acts as a generational reboot of the series, there certainly are some familiar faces involved.
Ralph Macchio returns as Daniel, while Jackie Chan plays the Mr Miagi alternative to the new young contender Li Fong, played by Ben Wang.
You wouldn’t necessarily guess it from the trailer, thanks to Macchio’s continued defiance of ageing, but he’s only seven years younger than Chan — who also looks fantastic at 70.
There’s a whole side of the story, perhaps thankfully, not addressed in the trailer, though.
Joshua Jackson stars as Victor, who doesn’t (as far as our eyes can tell) feature in the trailer. Our best bet is he’s the ward of whoever Li Fong ends up fighting against in the final showdown.
The Karate Kid: Legends represents a sort-of merging of series timelines. Macchio is of course from the original trilogy of movies from the 1980s, while Chan was the sensei of Jaden Smith’s Dre Parker in 2010’s somewhat-forgotten-but-not-terrible reboot.
1994's The Next Karate Kid doesn't get a look in, which is for the best.
The film is being directed by Jonathan Entwistle, who has primarily worked in TV but has notable credits including I Am Not Okay With This and The End of the F***ing World. Its screenplay is written by Rob Lieber, who wrote 2018’s Peter Rabbit and Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.
His involvement suggests we may be looking at a film that retains the "family watch" feel of the movies, over the somewhat harder approach of the Cobra Kai TV series.
The Karate Kid: Legends is due in cinemas on May 30 2025. It was originally pencilled in for release in June this year, but its production was delayed following the SAG-AFTRA strikes.