Sony is planning a reboot movie for The Karate Kid franchise, but the description of it makes little sense. The ongoing popularity of Netflix's Cobra Kai has led to a true golden age for The Karate Kid franchise. Sony, being a co-producer of Cobra Kai with Netflix through Sony Television, evidently recognize this with the announcement of a new Karate Kid movie to be released in 2024, but the details about it have resulted in a fair amount of confusion.

The upcoming Karate Kid movie will reportedly not be tied to Cobra Kai, per the show's creator Jon Hurwitz. While this would seem to indicate a hard reboot of The Karate Kid as a theatrical property, it seems that is not the case either, with the film being described as "The return of the original Karate Kid franchise". With just those two elements of Sony's new Karate Kid movie, there is already a lot to unpack, and much of it lacking in clarity.

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The idea of a new Karate Kid movie being both a return of the mainline franchise that began the series while also having no connection to Cobra Kai sends a contradictory mixed message about what the reboot will be. Cobra Kai being a direct follow-up to The Karate Kid movies, any movie or series set within said franchise would be connected to Cobra Kai by default. That is also just the beginning of the aspects of Sony's Karate Kid reboot that are already creating considerable issues and bewilderment.

Karate Kid 2024 Not Being Connected To Cobra Kai Is A Missed Opportunitydaniel larusso and terry silver fight in cobra kai season 5

The cultural phenomenon that Cobra Kai has become is the envy of most franchise comebacks. After becoming a surprise hit with its first two seasons of YouTube Red, Cobra Kai's migration to Netflix has seen its popularity continually grow with each season (Cobra Kai season 6's potential villain team-up likely spurring that growth even further). As the modern continuation of The Karate Kid franchise, Sony's reboot seemingly trying to stand apart from it seems to be creating a challenge for the messaging of its marketing where one does not need to exist.

With Cobra Kai being so embedded with the past of The Karate Kid movies, the description of Sony's 2024 Karate Kid movie as going back to the original series is bizarre, with Cobra Kai itself showing the franchise has long since returned. Additionally, Cobra Kai's popularity makes a reboot feel like a confusingly abandoned chance to continue the show's meteoric success into theaters. As Cobra Kai continues The Karate Kid franchise with new stories and character returns like Sean Kanan's Mike Barnes from The Karate Kid Part III, the idea of a Karate Kid reboot becomes even more perplexing in light of the bedrock for one having already been set up. That, of course, being the Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith-led The Karate Kid in 2010.

Karate Kid's 2010 Reboot Could Use A Sequel

Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith in Karate Kid

The title of The Karate Kid reboot is a rather blatant misnomer, with the film taking place in China and switching to kung fu as the martial art at the center of its young protagonist's training (though it was re-titled The Kung Fu Dream in China.) Despite this, The Karate Kid was a big hit in the summer of 2010, and was widely commended as a worthy modernization of the original's story. The performances of Jaden Smith as the young American kung fu student Dre Parker and Jackie Chan as his mentor Mr. Han, channeling as much martial arts wisdom as Daniel's teacher Mr. Miyagi, were a major highlight of The Karate Kid reboot. Despite its box office success and general praise, Dre and Mr. Han never returned to theaters in their own version of The Karate Kid Part II.

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While Sony's general description of the new Karate Kid movie is confusing for its simultaneous distancing from Cobra Kai while declaring itself within the core of the franchise, the studio ignoring 2010's The Karate Kid only compounds that. With a built-in hit as its foundation that would also serving as a re-interpretation of The Karate Kid story, more adventures with Dre and Mr. Han would give Sony a Karate Kid reboot that already has done all the heavy lifting. It also would not even necessarily rule out Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan appearing on Cobra Kai either, which could itself be a massive coup for Sony and Netflix alike. With the path Sony seems headed down with The Karate Kid reboot, it instead is setting them up for another problem.

The New Karate Kid Movie Risks Undoing The Progress Cobra Kai Has Made

Daniel uses a crane kick against Silver in the Cobra Kai Season 5 finale

Cobra Kai may be a direct follow-up to The Karate Kid movies, but it is also a re-invention in its own way. Ralph Macchio's Daniel and William Zabka's Johnny are as central to Cobra Kai as they were to the original Karate Kid movies, but viewers have seen them transform greatly both individually and in their relationship with each other. That same transformation has also occurred with other returning characters like Cobra Kai's villainous sensei Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), his one-time Army friend John Kreese (Martin Kove), and Daniel's old rival-turned-friend Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto). Meanwhile, there is also a further problem in the story of Cobra Kai itself being much less clear-cut in who is on the protagonist and antagonist sides of the conflict than The Karate Kid movies were.

One of the great strengths of Cobra Kai is the grey morality many of its characters fall into, particularly the young students of Daniel, Johnny, and Terry. The chaotic school fight of Cobra Kai season 2 ended in Robby (Tanner Buchanan) nearly killing Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), but the show's story structure made it possible for both of them to retain the empathy of viewers. Tory Nichols (Peyton List) has also spent much of Cobra Kai as something of an antagonist, but one that viewers genuinely care for with the hard life she's fought through and the mystery of Tory's mom. With Cobra Kai's more blurred lines of hero and villain treating the perspective of everyone as equally worthy and valid, Sony's Karate Kid reboot would be a regression to return to tightly defined parameters of who occupies those roles.

The Karate Kid franchise has not merely been re-invigorated by Cobra Kai, but taken to level of adoration almost unheard of for a franchise resurrection. Sony's decision to build on the popularity Cobra Kai has achieved, under normal circumstances, would be a smart business move. However, without some needed clarity on the plans are for it, the contradictory way in which it has been positioned early on as well as numerous other factors could make The Karate Kid reboot a real underdog to the success of Cobra Kai going into season 6.