Karate Kid: Legends falls in a unique place within the larger Miyagi-verse. The Ben Wang-led film is the first theatrical installment in the franchise in 15 years. When The Karate Kid (2010) was released, it initially served as a reboot, with the likes of Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence, and Mr. Miyagi not existing in this world. Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han, the mentor to Jaden Smith’s тιтular karate kid Dre Parker, effectively served as the reboot’s version of Mr. Miyagi.

That changes a bit in Karate Kid: Legends. Chan is back as Mr. Han, but he’s entering this film with a backstory that directly links him to the original movies. This raised questions as to whether Chan is playing a new interpretation of Mr. Han, not unlike JK Simmons’s “reprising” his role as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: No Way Home, or if this is the same Mr. Han from 2010.

ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley spoke with Karate Kid: Legends director Jonathan Entwistle to clarify Mr. Han’s canonical timeline, dissect his approach to creating a digestible Karate Kid film for both new and familiar audiences, and discuss his Marvel-inspired vision for the film’s depiction of New York City.

Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han Continues His Canon From 2010

“It’s all canon to the Karate Kid franchise…”

While there is some retconning going on when it comes to his backstory, Mr. Han in Karate Kid: Legends is indeed the same character that audiences met in The Karate Kid (2010).

“It’s all canon to the Karate Kid franchise. [Mr. Han] is the same character as the 2010 movie,”Karate Kid: Legends director Jonathan Entwistle confirmed. “The original movie is always canon. That’s kind of where everything stems from, and I think something that was really important for me was that in the way that Cobra Kai was a new chapter of the original movies, this is a new chapter, especially now that Cobra Kai has come to an end. This is the next chapter in the overall story.”

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And that next chapter is one that Entwistle wants audiences of all levels of Karate Kid fandom and familiarity to enjoy.

“I think the number one thing is to be able to take a piece of IP like this and make it something that the general audience can enjoy physically in the seats in the theater,” Entwistle noted. “Then I think you can really start to enjoy the little threads, the threads from the original movies, and then some of the little threads that we were allowed to play with from Cobra Kai. I feel that for a traditional Karate Kid audience, a 90 minute movie is perfect for a television audience. I’m very excited that we’re elevating what had lived on television into something theatrical.”

Entwistle Took Marvel Inspiration For Karate Kid’s New York City

“That kind of X-Men, Spider-Man world of how New York feels…”

The characters that Entwistle got to play with go beyond the ensemble cast itself. Karate Kid: Legends ventures to New York City, a location that is a character in and of itself. Entwistle re-teamed with longtime creative partner Justin Brown to work on the cinematography of this project, which largely revolved around creating a “cozy, comic book New York.”

“We’ve done everything that I’ve ever done together, and we have a really great approach to these types of things,” Entwistle said of Brown. “For me, I wanted this New York to feel like the cozy comic book New York, where Queens is a 30-second scooter ride from Central Park, that kind of X-Men, a Spider-Man world of how New York feels. It gives a real feeling of a type of New York that you only ever see in stories. It was really all about a New York that felt movie-like, cinematic, something you’d expect to see in the theater.”

Source: ScreenRant Plus