Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan will be starring in a new Karate Kid movie set to release in 2024,
and you could be starring in it too.
This news has shocked the fandom, and are we entering the next phase of this franchise,
or are we entering the Miyagi-verse of madness?
Hi, I'm Ken Cole, and if you're a fan of movies and TV shows,
Karate Kid or Cobra Kai, you're in the right place.
Alright, let's get right into this news.
Today, Sony released a new video featuring Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan saying that they're both
going to star in this new Karate Kid movie, and that they are looking for a new lead Karate Kid
actor, and they've opened it up to everyone, which is obviously very exciting news.
If you've wanted to be the Karate Kid, if you're the right age and you match the description,
and we'll go into that in a little bit, you could be featured in this new movie.
Let's get right to the story.
So according to a Hollywood Reporter article by Boris Kitt, the headline reads,
"Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Team for New Karate Kid Movie. The pair are reprising
their popular characters for a feature set to be released in December of 2024."
So this is coming next year, and that date I think will have some significance,
which I'll get to later.
As we keep reading, call it the Karate Kid Cinematic Universe.
Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, both of whom starred in Karate Kid movies decades apart,
are set to reprise their popular characters in Sony Pictures' latest installment of the iconic
coming of age martial arts franchise.
Jonathan Entwistle is directing the untitled feature that the studio is positioning
as the fusing and continuing mythology of the original franchise.
And I know a lot of fans are going to have problems with this.
How are you going to fuse these things together?
It almost doesn't make sense. They existed in separate worlds.
How are these characters going to come together?
We'll talk about that in a bit. Let's keep going.
Rob Lieber, whose credits include Sony's Peter Rabbit, wrote the script.
"The plot line is hiding in the back of the dojo."
Which is funny.
"However, it's known that the latest iteration will bring the story to the East Coast and focus
on a teen from China who finds strength and direction via martial arts and a tough but wise
mentor."
Okay.
And then it also says we've got December 13, 2024 as a release date,
and that a spring shoot is being eyed.
So the article's a little cagey about what this is all about.
However, we might have an inkling from some previous reporting from last year.
So this movie was actually officially announced by Sony back in September of 2022.
And we've talked about it a bit because the day it was announced,
John Hurwitz tweeted, "The guys and I would love to make Karate Kid and Cobra Kai movies
and hope to someday, but this one isn't from us or focused on the Cobra Kai cast.
Don't know much about it, but wish it well."
Okay.
So this was the first indication that this was something new.
Sony was doing something separate.
This was not connected to the Cobra Kai universe.
And by all accounts, that's still the case.
Everyone they've mentioned creatively with this project doesn't seem to have anything
to do with the Cobra Kai series, which is a really interesting choice.
And then, so I think a lot of fans were wondering, well, how could you move forward with a Karate
Kid movie and not include the original cast?
So maybe people thought, is this a reboot?
Is this something new that is completely unrelated to the characters we know?
Then in May, we heard that Jackie Chan was in talks to return for the next Karate Kid
film.
So I think at this point we're wondering, okay, is this movie going to be a continuation,
a sequel to the 2010 remake?
Which could make sense.
That movie did well.
It never got a sequel.
So maybe this is a continuation of that.
But today is very shocking because we have Ralph Macchio now who will be starring, according
to the Hollywood Reporter article, as Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan will be starring as
Mr. Han.
So these two characters were supposedly not in the same universe.
And now it looks like they're going to be brought into the same universe.
How is this going to happen?
I don't know.
As you'll remember, Mr. Miyagi was from Okinawa and Mr. Han is from China.
In fact, a lot of people criticized the remake of the Karate Kid as saying it should have
been called the Kung Fu Kid because they were using kung fu in that movie and not karate.
The longtime fans of the Karate Kid will know that Mr. Miyagi does have a connection to
China.
So could this be a connection point?
I will leave it up to you to decide.
We don't know if that's how the story is going to go.
We don't know how these two characters are going to get together.
So do we know anything else about what this might be?
Well, there was an article back from August of 2022.
So this is before Sony announced a new Karate Kid film.
We here at Murphy's Multiverse can exclusively reveal Sony is looking for a 17-year-old male
Chinese actor who speaks both Mandarin and English.
The character is referred to as Li, aha, and is said to be small for his age, but tough,
smart, and scrappy.
He's said to be a skilled fighter and a student in Beijing who finds his life uprooted after
his mother moves him to Brooklyn, New York.
Li is said to be struggling with a past tragedy, which drives a wedge between him and his doctor
mom who has managed to handle the same tragedy in her own way.
After Li meets Mia, a student from his high school, and her father Victor at a local pizza
restaurant, he'll soon find his life has changed yet again.
For the better, Li Su finds himself training Victor in the art of kung fu, despite his
mother's stance against violence and fighting, and ultimately back in the ring himself.
Then it says, "Rob Lieber, Peter Rabbit is attached to pen the script."
Okay, so if you go to the website, this is what you'll see, an open casting call for
The Karate Kid starring Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio.
So now it's going to give a description of what they're looking for.
So the character's name is Li Fang.
Looking for an actor to portray Chinese or mixed race Chinese and between 15 and 17 years
old, he speaks fluent English, conversational Mandarin is a strong plus, he's smart, scrappy,
and a skilled martial artist.
Any sort of martial arts movement, gymnastics, and/or dance experience is a strong plus.
Must be available March through June 2024.
That's interesting because it seems like that's when they'd be shooting season six of Cobra Kai.
So this article from Murphy's Multiverse from August 2022 has turned out to be true.
We have the main character named Li, the description of Li, and we also can see that Rob Lieber
is confirmed to be the writer of this new movie and in The Hollywood Reporter.
So it seems like this storyline will probably be what this movie's about.
How do Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han fit into this?
I don't know.
It's important to remember that scripts do evolve over time.
You can have rewrites.
So this version of the story that was from August of 2022 may be a bit different from
a newly revised version that they'll start shooting in the spring.
Now I have to ask, what do you think about this?
Do you like this story and where it's going?
The idea that the Karate Kid, Li, would be training an adult kind of flips the script
a little bit, but I don't know if I like that because I think one of the hallmarks of the
Karate Kid and Cobra Kai franchises are that these characters benefit from the wisdom,
from the mentorship of elder characters.
And oftentimes these characters fill in for fathers or absent parent figures.
That's a major theme in these movies.
So this is kind of changing it a bit.
Although if you have both Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han in the movie, you would think they
would be mentors and that this kid Li couldn't really teach any of them martial arts.
I don't know.
We don't know.
It's a bit confusing as to how those characters fit in.
So what do I think of this?
Well, I love the Karate Kid.
I love the franchise.
If people are inspired to make a new movie or a new series based in this universe, I'm
all for it.
I'm happy to see it happen.
Ralph Macchio himself has signed on to this.
Jackie Chan has signed on to this.
Especially Ralph Macchio was very reluctant to do anything Karate Kid again until the
Cobra Kai series came along.
So I think that's good.
I think he's at least deemed this to be a good prospect for a story.
So that's good.
All of that said, here are my hesitations.
Hollywood over the past decade or even longer has decided to lean into the idea of legacy
sequels.
And these are sequels that continue the story and or quasi reboot the story with some of
the legacy characters and then bringing in a whole bunch of new characters.
And the hope is to rope all those legacy fans in to the new movies and also hopefully inspire
new fans so they can keep making these as franchises and shared universes.
All of that.
The problem is a lot of fans see these as cash grabs.
And let's be honest, they are.
They're there to make money and they're not necessarily inspired from a place of creativity
and love of the franchise, wanting to make something a story that really justifies its
continuation.
We've seen this a lot with Disney with the Star Wars sequels and Star Wars series on
Disney Plus.
We have seen this with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but we've also seen it in
other places like on Paramount Plus and all these new Star Trek series.
And a lot of times these legacy sequels or legacy series ideas don't really work for
the fandom or they're divisive and they're never really as successful going forward creatively
as I think the studios would have hoped that the fans would have hoped.
And there are a few exceptions to that.
For example, Top Gun Maverick did a fantastic job of bringing back the Top Gun universe
to the big screen.
And another exception is the Cobra Kai series.
It's the unique legacy sequel that has earned unanimous praise from fans of the old Karate
Kid movies.
And it's inspired a new generation of fans who never saw those movies.
And so it actually accomplished what all these legacy sequels want to do.
And a lot of that goes to John Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald, who had such
love for those movies and did such an amazing job bringing these characters back.
So to me, I'm a little hesitant when they aren't involved with this new one.
You would think that Sony would bring them in to be involved with this new project and
that hopefully the new movie would harmonize with what they've done with the Cobra Kai
series.
I don't know why that decision was made.
I think I would have felt a lot more confident and a lot more excited going into this movie
if they were involved or they had okayed the project or they had co-written it.
That doesn't mean this new project won't be good.
And I honestly, I'm trying to figure out how Daniel LaRusso is going to be part of this.
Is it part of the same universe as Cobra Kai or is it a different
Daniel LaRusso? Is he still married to Amanda?
Does he still have Sam and Anthony?
Does he know everyone and the events of the Cobra Kai series?
Or is he off on his own a different time fork, multiverse continuation of Daniel LaRusso?
Why is he on the East Coast?
Why is he in Brooklyn?
Why is he there?
Is he there for a trip?
And then Mr. Han, that's another question as well.
I don't know.
It's just, it's an odd pairing.
I mean, I'm not saying it's impossible.
There could be a major hook to this that we don't know that would just grab us.
I don't know.
It's, it is kind of a confusing prospect for a, for a movie, at least if you're a
longtime fan of the Karate Kid and Cobra Kai.
So, you know, we talked about filming dates.
It's really interesting that this is going to be shot.
It looks like between March and June of 2024, or you just heard the other day,
John Hurwitz was saying they hope to restart filming of Cobra Kai season six at the top of
the new year.
So that means that depending on how big a part Ralph Macchio has in this new movie, maybe
he could show up.
Maybe if it's not a huge part, though, it says starring says they're starring in it.
If it's not a huge part, maybe his shooting could be adjusted more towards April, May,
or June to make room for him being able to shoot Cobra Kai season six, which is going
to be an epic season.
So it looks like Ralph Macchio is going to be busy, but it almost seems like those shooting
schedules might overlap a bit, which is interesting.
And then also we have this release date of December 13th, 2024.
I'm guessing that they're shooting for this release date because they want to release
the final season of Cobra Kai season six, probably in that December timeframe.
In the past, obviously, the December 30th, New Year's Eve timeframe worked really well.
They might be shooting for that again with Cobra Kai season six.
And I think maybe what they're trying to do is kind of get the benefit of marketing both
Cobra Kai season six and the new movie, get everyone excited for Karate Kid Cobra Kai
at the same time so they can feed off each other from a promotion standpoint.
That's my guess.
It'd be strange to have them released at different times.
But the problem for me is that they're not...
Are they even part of the same universe?
I don't know.
There'd be so much more synergy.
I know that that's like a corporate word, but it's true.
It's like there'd be so much more synergy, I think, if this new movie had some kind of
harmony with the Cobra Kai series.
If John, Josh, and Hayden were involved with both and you could put elements in each that
might refer to each other and that could make it more of an exciting dual event to go to
the movie and then watch the Cobra Kai series.
But what happens if this new movie releases in December 13th has nothing to do with the
Cobra Kai series and isn't that great?
Will that dampen the enthusiasm for the Cobra Kai season six?
Will the events of the new Karate Kid movie, whatever it's called with Ralph Macchio and
Jackie Chan, will that sour or put a damper on the character journeys that are going to
be happening in Cobra Kai season six?
It's very odd.
I think this is the first time in movie and TV history where this has happened where you
have characters from two separate universes coming together and then there's another
TV series from a different creative team that shares the same star and somehow everything
needs to be reconciled.
It's very confusing, but it could work.
It could absolutely work.
So I'll be interested.
I mean, I'm going to see it.
Like I'm sure a lot of you are going to see it too, but yeah, it's odd and very confusing
and I know we'll probably learn more details about this.
It was fun seeing that video.
There is something about Jackie Chan just as a performer that has that same serene quality
that Pat Morita had.
And so it was good to see him and Ralph Macchio together.
I think they would be fantastic together on screen.
You know, I'm sure there'll be a lot of talented people involved.
I just don't know, guys.
It's just kind of confusing, but I'd love to hear your comments on this.
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Thank you for watching this.
We will keep you updated here on this channel with more news.
We'll see you next time.