Which Karate Kid: Legends Character Are You?

Learn More About Karate Kid: Legends

Karate Kid: Legends had an unusual job to do. Released in May 2025 and directed by Jonathan Entwistle, it had to connect the original 1984 Ralph Macchio films, the 2010 Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan remake, and the six seasons of Cobra Kai that had turned the whole franchise into a genuine multi-generational phenomenon. That is a lot of continuity to reconcile in under two hours, and the film's solution is to make the collision itself the subject.

Ben Wang plays Li Fong, a kung fu prodigy who moves from Beijing to New York with his mother after a family tragedy. Li has been told, firmly, not to fight. He is carrying grief he has not processed and a talent he has been instructed to suppress, and the film is careful to establish that his reluctance is not timidity. Wang, who was already known to younger audiences from American Born Chinese, gives Li a watchful quality that keeps the character from reading as a standard reluctant hero.

Jackie Chan returns as Mr. Han, and it is a genuine pleasure to see him given room to play the role as an older, sadder man than he was in 2010. Han teaches by withholding, on the theory that a technique handed over too early is just a weapon with a nicer name. Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso is brought in from Reseda, and the film's central conceit is that Li needs both of them, because kung fu and karate are related traditions with different philosophies about what force is for.

The two-mentor structure is the movie's best idea and the source of its most enjoyable material. Chan and Macchio have easy chemistry, and the film lets them disagree without turning it into a rivalry. Joshua Jackson plays Victor Lipani, an adult with an unfinished boxing career who ends up in Li's orbit, and the relationship between them inverts the usual formula in a way that gives the middle of the film some unexpected warmth. Sadie Stanley and Ming-Na Wen round out the cast, with Aramis Knight as Li's opposition in the ring.

What the franchise has always understood, and what Cobra Kai made explicit across six seasons, is that these stories are not really about tournaments. They are about what adults hand to teenagers, deliberately and otherwise. Every version of this story has a kid who is angry and a teacher who has to decide whether to sharpen that anger or redirect it. Miyagi-do versus Cobra Kai was never a martial arts debate. It was a parenting debate with jump kicks.

Legends performed respectably at the box office and drew reviews that were friendlier than the concept might have suggested, with most critics singling out Wang and the Chan and Macchio pairing. It also functions as a bridge, positioning the franchise for whatever comes after Cobra Kai ended its run. For a series that began as a modest 1984 underdog picture, the durability is remarkable.

If this is your corner of the internet, our Cobra Kai quiz is the obvious next stop. For more stories about young people finding their footing, try our Wednesday quiz.

So who are you when you finally step onto the mat? The kid carrying two worlds, the master who withholds, the teacher who cannot walk past someone in trouble, the adult taking his shot late, or the champion who has never been given a reason to soften? Take the quiz above and find out.