Karate Kid: Legends is the latest installment in the Karate Kid franchise, releasing shortly after Cobra Kai finished its six-season run on Netflix. The Karate Kid series has remained alive since the original 1984 film starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. The film led to a trilogy followed by 1994’s The Next Karate Kid, a sequel starring Hilary Swank. In 2010, the series was rebooted with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, introducing kung fu into the franchise’s canon.

In 2018, much of the original cast returned for Cobra Kai, a Netflix series featuring the return of Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso and William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence as they train a new generation of students. Cobra Kai aired its finale in February 2025, but that wasn’t the end of the franchise. Legends premiered on May 30, introducing Li Fong as the next prodigy within the Karate Kid universe. While the film was released only a few months after Cobra Kai’s ending, it takes place a few years after the show’s finale.

Karate Kid: Legends Takes Place 3 Years After Cobra Kai’s Ending

Legends Is A New Story That’s Completely Separate From The Netflix Series

Legends unites Chan’s Mr. Han and Macchio’s LaRusso for the first time, bringing together Han’s school of kung fu with Daniel’s Miyagi-Do. Daniel has been teaching Miyagi-Do for several years thanks to Cobra Kai, but he looks slightly different in Legends. He has a longer haircut and seems to be at a different point in his life from the Cobra Kai finale. According to Macchio, there is an explanation for that. Speaking with Variety, Macchio said that Legends takes place “three years” after Cobra Kai, since Macchio wanted to make sure it fit with Daniel’s journey.

“It was not a quick decision, 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?”

While the film is after the Netflix series, it has almost no connection to it, except for a quick cameo from Johnny at the film’s ending. It’s never mentioned by Daniel, so audiences who have never seen Cobra Kai won’t miss anything. However, fans of the series may be disappointed that the film essentially ignores the show’s events.

Karate Kid: Legends Takes Place in 2023 Based On The Timeline

The Film Would Take Place Three Years From When Cobra Kai Ended Canonically

While Cobra Kai aired from 2018-2025, the show never followed that timeline. The series didn’t include significant time jumps in between seasons, as it would often pick up directly from when the last season ended. Plus, many of the younger characters are in high school, and they don’t graduate until the series finale. Season 6’s Sekai Taikai takes place in 2020, meaning the show actually ended 5 years before its real premiere date.

Since Legends takes place three years after Cobra Kai‘s ending, this means the film is set in 2023. Perhaps this explains why Cobra Kai isn’t referenced in the film. The younger characters like Miguel, Robbie, Tory, and Samantha could be at drastically different points in their lives, and the film would have to fill in the gaps for people who have seen the series. It’s best to keep the focus on Li for now, and possibly bring in other Cobra Kai characters later.

How Long After The 2010 Movie Does Karate Kid: Legends Take Place?

There’s A Significant Amount Of Time Between The 2010 Film And Legends

2010’s The Karate Kid wasn’t initially planned as part of the main universe, and was meant to be a loose remake of the original film. However, Chan’s return as Mr. Han in Legends retcons the film, making it the fifth installment within the franchise. In the 2010 film, Han was a maintenance worker who returns to kung fu to train Smith’s Dre. In Legends, Han now operates a busy kung fu school, where he trained Li before he moved to New York City.

Based on the timeline, there is a 13-year gap between Legends and the 2010 film, which would explain how Mr. Han had time to grow his kung fu school into a successful business. Dre is surprisingly never mentioned in this film, despite Dre supposedly being the Daniel to his Mr. Miyagi. The Karate Kid franchise goes back decades, and it’ll be interesting to see if it grows further from Karate Kid: Legends.