How Ralph Macchio's 'feel-good' first 'Karate Kid' informs 'Legends'
Ben Wang, star of “Karate Kid: Legends,” was turned on to the original “Karate Kid” as a youngster because it was his aunt’s favorite movie.
Wang's on-screen rival, Aramis Knight (both 25), had never experienced it until he was cast in the new film. And “Legends” director Jonathan Entwistle – born in 1984, the year the first "Kid" came out – got into the mythology thanks only to the Netflix spinoff series “Cobra Kai.”
Then there’s Ralph Macchio, the OG karate kid. He has been a part of the franchise before there was a franchise, before "wax on, wax off" became a touchstone. It’s no secret to Macchio why folks still follow the journey of his Daniel LaRusso – and why he thinks people will love Wang’s teen character, Li Fong.
“He’s dealing with an internal struggle a little bit different than what my struggle was back in the day, but at the end of it, you're rooting for people you care about. That's the storytelling,” Macchio says. “And we're hoping that this fresh new take for the 2025 families is going to be what it needs to be: entertainment for everyone.”
“Legends” (in theaters May 30) expands the Miyagi-verse – named for Daniel-san’s beloved sensei Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita) – by bringing in kung fu shifu Mr. Han, Jackie Chan’s wise old master from 2010’s “Karate Kid” reboot. But there are echoes of the original “Karate Kid”: After moving from Beijing to Brooklyn, Li runs afoul of karate-champ bully Conor (Knight). And when Li enters a martial arts competition to win prize money for his struggling friend Victor (Joshua Jackson), Han reaches out to LaRusso for karate help because of his own friendship with Miyagi.
Unlike young Daniel, Li is way past the basics. “This is grad school,” says Wang, the first Asian-American lead of a "Karate Kid" film.
Jackie Chan's 'Karate Kid' love goes back to the '80s
Wang recalls meeting Chan and the hubbub about the 71-year-old Hong Kong action icon starting before he got to the set. Filming in Montreal, Wang watched a crew full of laid-back French Canadians freak out hearing that Chan was driving himself from the airport. “Thirty minutes later, Jackie pulls up in a van and he's like, ‘What's up?’ ” Wang says with a laugh. “And then we shot a fight scene together.”
Chan was aware of the 1984 film and enjoyed it, and it was “part of the reason why I did my first ‘Karate Kid’ movie,” he says. “It gives people a chance to know karate and the culture.” He had wanted to work with Macchio ever since meeting him at the premiere of the 2010 “Karate Kid,” and for him, the best part about “Legends” is “we get to train Ben and torture him together!”
Filming those sequences, Macchio and Chan “were always trying to one up each other,” Entwistle adds. “It's baked into this idea of kung fu versus karate, which one is better?” And it’s a “quite meta” way to nod to the audience division between the 2010 movie and the beloved original.
Knight believes the 1984 film still holds up: “It’s a feel-good movie that anybody can relate to, whether you're 13 or 30 or 100 years old.” And there are moments in "Legends" with Macchio in the old Miyagi house where “he looks on-screen to me like he could be 17,” Entwistle says.
Original 'Karate Kid' Ralph Macchio embraces his most Mr. Miyagi self
Macchio has a good sense of humor when it comes to his apparent eternal life. “Don't let the youthfulness fake you out,” quips the actor, still looking great at 63. That vigor helped when he wrapped the “Cobra Kai” series finale, got on a plane and immediately went to work on “Legends.” “You buy the goldfish, you keep it in the bag until it gets used to the climate. I was just, they cut the bag, threw me in.”
"Cobra Kai" ended with LaRusso and former rival Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) finally at peace, and “there's really a grounded sort of almost Miyagi-esque element” about Daniel now, Macchio says. “He’s less the uptight car salesman who's pissed off that Johnny's getting up in his kitchen."
The teachings of Miyagi continue to flow through the franchise. For Chan, there’s Mr. Han’s continued passion for training his student but also the core of “Karate Kid,” where “we protect, not attack, and we take care of each other,” he says. And Li becomes a martial arts master of sorts for ex-boxer/pizza-place owner Victor, showing him that “everything is kung fu” as he trains for a comeback fight. “He's still doing the boxing that he's always done. But it's almost like he believes in himself,” Entwistle says.
Macchio sees it in the "heartfelt way" Daniel and Han connect, "that sharing a piece of the wisdom and the legacy of Miyagi is never the wrong choice when it's for the greater good," he says.
And Macchio takes all that to heart in his real life as well, be it with young co-stars like Wang or his own children: “Sharing those stories and a piece of that going forward, be it from the actor side or the sensei side, is something I take a great deal of pride in.”