Last year, it was announced that Sony Pictures would be capitalizing on the Karate Kid brand with a new movie. Thanks to the Netflix series Cobra Kai, the franchise has found a new life in the streaming era. When Sony announced the new movie, it was assumed it would be connected to the show until it was revealed that neither Ralph Macchio nor Cobra Kai creator Jon Hurwitz are involved. ComicBook.com is now reporting that Jackie Chan, who was the Miyagi-type character Mr. Han in the 2010 remake, is in talks to return for the new film in that role.
The story in the Karate Kid remake, which would star Jaden Smith in the student role, was heavily derived from the original’s plot. However, it’s not explicitly established that the universe is separate from Daniel Larusso’s. There isn’t any information on what the story of this new film will involve, but it was specifically said that this movie is a return to the original Karate Kid franchise. Hard to tell what that means since Cobra Kai has literally done that.
Sony has an iffy reputation for the handling of its franchises. Although the initial Spider-man movies were huge moneymakers, in the years since, the company has been viewed as largely mismanaging the property with an underwhelming reboot and unnecessary spin-offs that try to connect to a universe. The only successful decision they’ve made with the character was to partner with Marvel. Additionally, when the studio tried to reboot the Ghostbusters franchise with the Paul Feig version, it became a notoriously divisive film, which made Sony decide to scrap that continuity and pick up with the original’s timeline. So, the jury’s out on what they intend to explore with this new Karate Kid entry.
The Karate Kid franchise found itself back in the pop culture stream as it successfully revitalized the brand with Cobra Kai. Cobra Kai started as a YouTube Red banner title but really took off in popularity when it became exclusively a Netflix show. Many have cited the show as a great example of continuing a franchise honorably by both revisiting the former beloved characters of the series while forging a new path with a new generation of characters.