Sony’s new Karate Kid movie is headed to theaters next May and now, we finally know what the film will be called. On Thursday, Sony Pictures revealed that Karate Kid: Legends will be the film’s official title as well as revealed the film’s logo. The announcement comes ahead of the film’s panel at New. York Comic Con next Friday at the Empire Stage at Javits Center. The film, which will be the sixth in the overall Karate Kid franchise, is set to open in theaters on May 30, 2025.
At the moment, not much is known about Karate Kid: Legends. The film was first announced to be in development in September 2022 and then in November 2023, it was announced that both Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan would be returning for the film. Macchio and Chan notably starred in separate installments of the Karate Kid franchise, with Chan appearing as Mr. Han, a Mr. Miyagi-type figure in 2010’s The Karate Kid while Macchio starred as Daniel LaRusso in the original Karate Kid and its sequels, The Karate Kid Part II and The Karate Kid Part III and later reprised the role for the series Cobra Kai. The cast of Karate Kid: Legends will also include Ming-Na Wen, Joshua Jackson, Shauntette Renee Wilson, Sadie Stanley, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff, Jennifer Lyn-Christie, and Ben Wang as the newest Karate Kid. The new film is directed by The End of the F**ing World and I Am Not Okay With This’s Jonathan Entwistle in his feature directorial debut. The film is written by Rob Lieber.
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How Many Movies Are in The Karate Kid Franchise?
With the release of Karate Kid: Legacy in 2025, there will be six films in the overall Karate Kid franchise as well as the television series, Cobra Kai. The first film, The Karate Kid, was released in 1984 and followed Daniel LaRusso, a teenager from New Jersey who moves to the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles with his mother (Randee Heller). Daniel is soon bullied by Johnny Lawrence, top student of the Cobra Kai dojo and ex-boyfriend of Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), a cheerleader that Daniel befriends. When Daniel ends up beaten up by Johnny and his gang, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), the handyman at Daniel’s apartment who just so happens to be a karate master intervenes and ultimately mentors Daniel. The film was followed by sequels The Karate Kid Part II in 1986 and The Karate Kid Part III in 1989.
In 1994, The Next Karate Kid was released. Morita reprised his role as Mr. Miyagi. In the film, Mr. Miyagi travels to Boston for a commemorative service for Japanese American soldiers who fought in World War II and while there introduced to Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank), the rebellious teenage granddaughter of his commanding officer who has anger issues. Mr. Miyagi agrees to mentor Julie. The film also stars Walton Goggins, Michael Ironside, Constance Towers, and Chris Conrad.
Then, in 2010, The Karate Kid got a remake of sorts. The film followed Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother who move to Detroit to Beijing where Dre befriends a young musician at his school, Meiying but draws the ire of king fu prodigy Cheng. After being bullied and beaten up by Cheng, Dre is saved by his apartment’s maintenance man, Mr. Han (Chan) who ends up training Dre for a kung fu tournament.
More Cobra Kai is Coming This Fall
While fans wait for Karate Kid: Legacy to arrive in theaters next May, they still have more episodes of Cobra Kai to look forward to. The second part of the Netflix series’ sixth and final season is set to arrive on November 15th, with five more episodes — Season 6 Part 1 which also consisted of five episodes dropped back in July. A third part which will also contain five episodes is expected to arrive sometime in 2025 presumably before Karate Kid: Legacy arrives in theaters. It’s currently clear if or how Cobra Kai will connect to Karate Kid: Legacy — series creator Jon Hurwitz has previously said the film and the series are not directly connected — but in terms of the story for Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Hurwitz has previously said that their journey will take them exactly where it was planned at the outset.
“For our main characters, you know the Johnny and Daniels of the world who we’ve known since 1984, the ending is very similar to what we were thinking about before we even had a writer’s room way back on Season 1,” Hurwitz said. “It was the kinds of things that we talked about in the long game. We always hoped that people would react to the show the way that they did and we’d have the opportunity to tell a six or seven season-long story. We’re just grateful that we had the opportunity to land it the way that we envisioned. So, in terms of those characters, there’s tweaks within it, but the kinds of scenes that we have in some of those final episodes are very similar to things that we’ve been thinking about for a very long time.”
Karate Kid: Legacy is scheduled to open in theaters on May 30, 2025.
