The Karate Kid: WTF You Need To Know About This Franchise

The Karate Kid has to be one of the most unexpectedly massive franchises of all time. In 1984, John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid was a modestly budgeted underdog story (in the Rocky mode) featuring two unknown leads, Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. At the time, Macchio was mainly known for playing the doomed Johnny in The Outsiders, while Morita was known as the wacky Arnold from Happy Days. The $8 million movie would gross $100 million in 1984, and the sequel, The Karate Kid – Part II – would make even more, grossing $115 million and giving us the Peter Cetera classic (to some) “The Glory of Love.”

The franchise would die, for a while, when The Karate Kid – Part III flopped with a measly $38 million gross, while The Next Karate Kid would fare even worse. For the longest time, it looked like the franchise was dead, especially when Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan starred in a well-received reboot. It seemed like people had forgotten Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi until William Zabka, who played the first movie’s antagonist, Johnny Lawrence, started pursuing the idea of a sequel. It began with a music video Zabka directed called “Sweep the Leg,” and it led to the series Cobra Kai, which kickstarted the idea of the Miyagi-verse, and stands as perhaps the best example of a “requel” (reboot/sequel) that we’ve ever gotten.

In this episode of WTF You Need to Know About This Franchise, we examine the saga as a whole, digging into the characters, the production history and the story of the franchise, including our take on what Karate Kid movies are essential and which ones (if any) you can skip.

This episode is written, narrated and edited by Kier Gomes, and produced by Tyler Nichols. What’s your favorite instalment of the Karate Kid series? Let us know in the comments!