This weekend marks the discharge of Karate Child: Legends, which follows the massively profitable collection Cobra Kai however serves as a legacy sequel that unites two distinct elements of the Karate Child franchise: the unique 1984 Karate Child and its subsequent follow-ups and the 2010 The Karate Child, which was initially positioned as a reboot. As a result of overwhelming reputation of Cobra Kai, the legacy of the 2010 The Karate Child movie has largely gone unnoticed, with most individuals remembering it as a star automobile for a younger Jaden Smith.
Whereas it might be laborious to imagine, it has been 15 years since The Karate Child movie, starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, which reimagined the basic 1984 movie. The movie includes a younger American boy transferring to China and studying martial arts to fight bullying, and turning into buddies with a mysterious older trainer. Karate Child: Legends is the closest factor the 2010 movie has to a sequel, which is stunning contemplating it was a field workplace hit that ranked among the many highest-grossing movies of its 12 months. Sony Footage spent almost a decade making an attempt and failing to show the film right into a long-running franchise. Here is why Jaden Smith’s The Karate Child by no means received a sequel, a breakdown of the prior makes an attempt to combine the movie into Cobra Kai, and the way it lastly acquired the legacy sequel remedy with Karate Children: Legends.
‘The Karate Child’ Was a Field Workplace Hit
In the summertime of 2010, no one anticipated a lot from The Karate Child. Regardless of being a remake of a well-liked Nineteen Eighties film, the novelty of remaking ’80s movies was starting to chill down on the time. Mockingly, it was set to go head-to-head on the field workplace with one other ’80s property: The A-Staff, a big-budget characteristic movie adaptation of the favored tv present of the identical identify. With stars like Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper, The A-Staff appeared to be the winner that weekend on the field workplace. In distinction, even the star energy of Jackie Chan seemingly could not muster up pleasure for a reimagining of The Karate Child that did not even characteristic karate however as a substitute kung fu (in some elements of the world, the film was even launched as The Kung Fu Child).
But on June 11, 2010, The Karate Child swept the leg of The A-Staff on the field workplace. Not solely did it open to a formidable $18.8 million on its opening day, however its gross elevated to $21 million on Saturday earlier than closing out the weekend with $55 million, claiming the #1 spot on the field workplace. Not solely did The Karate Child make greater than double The A-Staff‘s $25 million opening weekend, however it basically recouped its preliminary $40 million manufacturing funds. Even with Toy Story 3 opening the next week and dominating the summer time, The Karate Child nonetheless managed to gross $176 million domestically and $359 million worldwide. It was the seventh-highest-grossing film of that summer time and the Eleventh-highest-grossing movie of 2010.
The Karate Child was a field workplace hit that generated largely optimistic opinions from critics and household audiences. It earned a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 61 on Metacritic. With all that in thoughts, it looks like a sequel would have been fast-tracked. With how shortly studios can seemingly flip round sequels to standard motion pictures, the truth that Sony Footage struggled with The Karate Child 2 is perplexing.
Sony Tried To Make a ‘Karate Child’ Sequel, however Delays Compelled It To Be Canceled
Plans for The Karate Child 2 have been introduced shortly after the 2010 movie’s launch. Director Breck Eisner, who helmed The Crazies in 2010, signed on to direct the sequel. He was a notably totally different selection than Harold Zwart, who had earned a reputation directing household movies Agent Cody Banks and The Pink Panther 2 earlier than signing on to helm The Karate Child. This presumably instructed a darker movie than the earlier entry. Nonetheless, progress on the sequel was sluggish, notably as Jaden Smith was busy engaged on the longer term field workplace flop After Earth along with his father Will Smith by director M. Evening Shyamalan.
As a result of growing time hole, a number of writers cycled by way of the manufacturing. These included Zak Penn (The Unimaginable Hulk), writing group Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (Kung Fu Panda), and writing duo Jeremiah Friedman and Nick Palmer. As a result of delays, it was believed lots of the new drafts have been to age up Jaden Smith’s character, Dre Parker. In 2017, Chan hinted that the earlier script drafts for The Karate Child 2 weren’t superb, doubtless main Sony to undergo a number of drafts to appease each Chan and lure Smith again.
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By 2014, Eisner had dropped out of directing because of scheduling conflicts with The Final Witch Hunter. Manufacturing on The Karate Child 2 was so sluggish that, in 2017, Eisner returned to the mission. Nonetheless, by the tip of the 12 months, the mission appeared to be lifeless. Smith was 12 years outdated when The Karate Child got here out, however by 2017, he was almost 20, seemingly having aged out of the function.
On the similar time, the 2000s and early 2010s period of remakes had given option to a brand new development: the legacy sequel. Star Wars: The Power Awakens, Jurassic World, and Creed had indicated to Hollywood that audiences did not need remakes and have been embracing the years’ value of continuity in these long-running franchises. Round this time, The Karate Child was getting its legacy sequel. As a substitute of constant the story of the 2010 movie that was meant to be a remake, why not make a legacy sequel to The Karate Child trilogy, however this time from Johnny Lawrence’s viewpoint? Therefore, Cobra Kai was born and debuted in 2018.
‘Cobra Kai’ References to the 2010 Movie and ‘Karate Child: Legends’
When Cobra Kai first debuted, it was a average hit on a platform that not often received viewership: YouTube Pink. Nonetheless, the opinions have been robust, and it continued right into a second season earlier than being picked up by Netflix, the place it ran for 4 further seasons and reached a wider viewers. Cobra Kai Season 1 was primarily centered on revisiting characters from The Karate Child. Nonetheless, because the collection continued, it expanded its roster of returning characters from The Karate Child franchise. Characters from The Karate Child Half II and The Karate Child Half III grew to become main returning characters, leaving many followers questioning if the collection would ever have the ability to land Hilary Swank from The Subsequent Karate Child, or combine 2010’s The Karate Child and retroactively make it the fifth movie within the franchise.
The collection by no means featured Swank or any references to the 2010 movie. The one significant connection Cobra Kai maintains with the 2010 movie is thru Will Smith, who serves as an government producer on the collection. It’s because Smith’s manufacturing firm, Overbrook Leisure, acquired the rights to provide The Karate Child in 2010, and the rights by no means lapsed, regardless of not making The Karate Child 2. Overbook Leisure greenlit Cobra Kai, and because the firm’s co-founder, Smith receives an government producer credit score on the collection regardless of having no involvement within the day-to-day operations of the collection.
The Cobra Kai collection creators stated they have been open to bringing The Karate Child reimagining as a part of their bigger story, however by no means discovered a considerably significant manner to take action. Nonetheless, the creators of Cobra Kai later acknowledged that it will be inconceivable, because the collection referenced the actor Jackie Chan, who performed Mr. Han within the 2010 movie The Karate Child. As a result of Jackie Chan exists as an actor throughout the world of Cobra Kai, a personality he performed could not additionally exist within the franchise. Whereas Ralph Macchio seemingly shot down the concept of 2010’s The Karate Child being a part of the bigger Miyagi-Verse in 2021, by 2023, he had modified his tune because it was introduced that Karate Child: Legends would bridge the 2 distinctive corners of the franchise, uniting Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso with Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han to coach a brand new pupil whereas additionally establishing a earlier untold historical past between Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Han.
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Karate Child: Legends was initially set to open in 2024, however was delayed to accommodate the discharge of the ultimate season of Cobra Kai, which concluded in February 2025. Regardless of Macchio and Chan being the one returning forged members from their respective corners of the franchise, the door hopefully stays open for potential sequels to additional character returns. Whereas most followers is perhaps trying ahead to seeing Cobra Kai characters like Johnny Lawrence, Miguel Diaz, Samantha LaRusso, Tory Nichols, or Robby Keene return, it actually can be good to meet up with Jaden Smith’s Dre Parker and see how his life turned out after the 2010 movie.
Karate Child: Legends may not be the sequel that 2010’s The Karate Child meant or that followers initially hoped for. But after years of being the ignored entry in The Karate Child franchise, regardless of being a shock field workplace hit, the Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith-led entry is lastly getting its second within the highlight. With many children who doubtless noticed that 2010 Karate Child movie in theaters being adults, the nostalgia issue is working in its favor. That may clarify how a remake has now turn out to be a part of a crossover and legacy sequel uniting two generations of Karate Child followers. Karate Child: Legends is in theaters now.