Karate Kid: Legendsis the latest entry inThe Karate Kidfranchise, and while some people are fans of the sequel, it was a bad idea from day one. WhileThe Karate Kidfranchise has been going since the original film was released in 1984, it has been going through a bit of a modern Renaissance, one thatKarate Kid: Legendswas attempting to capitalize on.
Karate Kid: Legendsattempts to unite the three branches ofThe Karate Kidfranchise, bringing the stories of the original series, the 2010The Karate Kidremake, and the spinoff seriesCobra Kaitogether.The combined characters are centered around an originalKarate Kid: Legendscharacter, a boy named Li Fong who moves to New York and joins a martial arts tournament.
Karate Kid: Legendshas been a box officeand critical disappointment. The film made $103 million on its relatively small budget of $45 million, and it currently has a 59% critic score onRotten Tomatoes.Karate Kid: Legendswas seemingly meant to be the next chapter inThe Karate Kidsaga, but it failed thanks to its handling of one key part of the franchise.
Cobra Kaiis what has reignited interest inThe Karate Kidfranchise, and if it weren’t for the success of the spinoff series, it is doubtful that the 2025 film would exist.Cobra Kaiexpanded the world ofThe Karate Kidby telling a story about the later years of original series villain Johnny Lawrence, with him reopening the titular dojo, teaching a new group of students, and reuniting with Daniel LaRusso.
WhileCobra Kaiwas incredibly popular, the connections toThe Karate Kidare not why. Sure, havingThe Karate Kidbrand attached helpedCobra Kaisucceed. However, being a sequel to a trilogy of movies from three decades prior is not what allowedCobra Kaito run for six seasons.The Karate KidEaster eggs and references aren’t enough, andCobra Kaiknew that.
However,Karate Kid: Legendsdid not. The film’s original story is incredibly thin, with it following the template of the originalThe Karate Kidand its 2010 remake far too closely. Bringing back characters fromThe Karate Kidfranchise’s past felt like more of a marketing gimmick than anything. IfKarate Kid: Legendsdidn’t have the franchise attached, it would’ve just been another generic martial arts movie for kids.
Instead,the characters and story are what madeCobra Kaigreat. Most ofCobra Kai’s characters are original to the Netflix show, meaning that they had to be built from the ground up. Despite this, fans still love them, as the series took its time to build interesting characters. The themes, story, and intrigue ofCobra Kaiare missing fromKarate Kid: Legends, explaining why it failed.
Ignoring Cobra Kai’s Characters & Story Made Karate Kid: Legends' Premise Needlessly Confusing
It Was Clearly Trying To Remove Itself From Cobra Kai
Despite being the reason whyThe Karate Kidis so popular now,Cobra Kaiwas mostly ignored byKarate Kid: Legends. This is because the original characters fromCobra Kaican’t appear inKarate Kid: Legends,thanks to issues with the rights. Columbia doesn’t have the rights to use these Netflix characters, meaning that they could only use characters who existed beforeCobra Kai, like Daniel and Johnny Lawrence.
However, this caused a lot of story issues. Firstly,Karate Kid: Legendshad to intentionally disconnect itself fromCobra Kai. This is probably whyKarate Kid: Legendsis set three years afterCobra Kai, so as to have a clean break between the Netflix series and the legacy sequel. This could also explain whyKarate Kid: Legendstakes place in New York, moving away from the franchise’s staple California setting.
On top of that,Karate Kid: Legendshad to bring back Daniel LaRusso without acknowledging any of hisCobra Kaistory. While the film doesn’t explicitly retcon anything from the series, it is odd that Danny didn’t mention anyone from or anything that occurred inCobra Kai. The only exception isKarate Kid: Legends' Johnny Lawrence cameo, which again is only loosely connected toCobra Kai.
Karate Kid: Legends Tried Too Hard To Make The Unpopular 2010 Movie Relevant
It Was The Most Heavily Featured Karate Kid Project
Instead of focusing onCobra Kai,Karate Kid: Legends,for some reason, heavily focused on the 2010 remake. 2010’sThe Karate Kidis almost universally panned, but of all the branches ofThe Karate Kidfranchise, this is the one thatKarate Kid: Legendsfocused on the most.
Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han is a main character, while Daniel LaRusso is more of a supporting character who doesn’t appear until the second half of the movie. The movie is full of references to the 2010 remake, and it even fleshes out Mr. Han’s story, something thatKarate Kid: Legendsdidn’t do with Danny, thanks toCobra Kai.
The reasoning for this is incredibly confusing, as it isn’t hard to see that the legacy of the 2010 remake isn’t great. However, it could be that the studio wanted to bank on nostalgia, and sinceCobra Kaialready did that for the original trilogy, the 2010 remake was the next best thing. After all,it was a better pick thanThe Next Karate Kid.
The Original Karate Kid Was Always The Franchise’s Only Good Movie
And Karate Kid: Legends Doesn’t Change That
Despite the franchise being massive, the 1984 original is the only good movie inThe Karate Kidseries.The Next Karate Kidand 2010’sThe Karate Kidare both universally panned, and there aren’t many defenders ofThe Karate Kid Part IIorPart III. The franchise almost entirely coasted on the success of the original, with this allowing it to survive now five bad sequels.
Some hoped that the 2025 film would finally break this trend. However,Karate Kid: Legendshas now reaffirmed that the originalThe Karate KidandCobra Kaiare the only quality projectsthat the franchise has to offer.
