How Does ‘Karate Kid: Legends’ Relate to ‘Cobra Kai’?

Cobra Kai may have finally come to its bittersweet end on Netflix, but The Karate Kid universe is still going strong. A new film in the saga, Karate Kid: Legends, is slated to hit theaters on May 30 and features an all-new chapter in the Miyagi-Do story. But how does Karate Kid: Legends relate to Cobra Kai? Well, it’s complicated.

Karate Kid: Legends is not produced by the creators of Cobra Kai. When TV Insider spoke to the co-creators of the Netflix series ahead of its final bow, Josh Heald said of the film, “We’re curious about it. We didn’t grow up with the Jackie Chan movie in 2010. We grew up with the story from 1984, and obviously, they’re doing a bit of a blend where they’re bringing Daniel into that storyline. So we go into it with a Karate Kid fan’s curiosity.”

In Karate Kid: Legends, Ralph Macchio reprises his role as Daniel LaRusso, and certain sets and costumes related to Mr. Miyagi’s (Pat Morita) beloved home will be featured as well, as seen in the film’s trailer.

However, the film is a direct sequel to the Jaden Smith– and Jackie Chan-led film The Karate Kid, which took place in China and centered on a 12-year-old boy’s journey to learning kung fu from a reclusive master of the discipline. Although The Karate Kid (2010) did borrow certain elements from the original 1984 film of the same name, it wasn’t a sequel. Instead, it was a reboot and didn’t feature any returning characters from the first four films, The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), or The Next Karate Kid (1994). The inclusion of Daniel, then, will bring the diverging storylines together for the first time.

The story of Karate Kid: Legends will be set three years after the events of Cobra Kai, Macchio told Variety before adding, “It was not a quick decision [to join the film] because it was about protecting the Daniel LaRusso character and finding where he would be at that point, and then protecting the whole legacy in the Miyagi-verse. Once we were able to line that up, for the Cobra Kai story to lead into the new film — even though they’re separate ecosystems — it all made sense for me. Then, working with Jackie was just super exciting. I started this on the big screen. How cool is it to get it back to the big screen?”

The film centers on a boy named Li Fong (Ben Wang), a kung fu prodigy who struggles to fit in with his classmates and enters a karate competition. He’ll need help from Mr. Han (Chan) and Daniel to merge the two styles if he wants to succeed. It brings together Daniel and karate with Mr. Han and kung fu for the first time.

Cobra Kai, Netflix

Karate Kid: Legends, In theaters, May 30