First Trailer and Story Details for KARATE KID: LEGENDS Featuring Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio
Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Katarte Kid: Legends along with some photos and story details for the movie that brings together Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan uniting as Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han. We also see Ben Wang showing off his impressive karate skills.
I’ve been really curious about this film and excited to see what the story would entail and how it would connect with the legacy of The Karate Kid franchise and it turns out that Mr. Han has ties to Mr. Miyagi. This looks like it’ll be a great addition to the franchjise!
Wang takes on the role of Li Fong, a Beijing-based teenager who moves to New York City with his mother (Ming-Na Wen). “The teen's transition to the Big Apple is, in a word, sour: Li has trouble fitting in at his new school, and he keeps getting dragged into fights he would very much like to avoid.
"When a new friend needs his help, Li enters a karate competition — but his skills alone aren’t enough. Li’s kung fu teacher Mr. Han (Chan) enlists original Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) for help, and Li learns a new way to fight, merging their two styles into one for the ultimate martial arts showdown."
Director Jonathan Entwistle teases LaRusso’s involvement saying: “Without giving too much away, I can say that Mr. Han and Mr. Miyagi are the connection to Daniel.
“The Han family and the Miyagi family are connected all the way back to the old times. And there is a mention of this within the Karate Kid movie canon for those people who want to go looking for it.”
When talking about the New York City setting for the film, the director said: “It’s the idea of — in a classic Karate Kid sense — the fish out of water. Ben's character, Li, is finding his way around the city, and he gets embroiled in the middle of something that's going to force him to have to stand up and fight.
“I was really excited about how can we make New York feel like a character — not just visually, but how can it interact with the way he's feeling and what he's doing?
“We piece that together by shooting on location, and we built some pieces of New York [on soundstages]. There are a lot of areas that really involve the skyline of Manhattan, and you see little hints of that in the poster for the movie.
“It was important that it felt like we were getting some joy from the action sequences, and fighting and training in the city really gives you that.”
As far as the action sequence go, he said: “We set out to make something that was both cinematic and action-packed. The fight sequences, they're really exciting. My hope is that when you're sitting in that theater, you're on the edge of your seat.”
Karate Kid: Legends premieres in theaters Friday, May 30, 2025. Check out the trailer below and let us now what you think!
Source: Entertainment Weekly