Karate Kid: Legends brings together the original Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio’s Daniel, with Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han from the unrelated 2010 remake. The new film confirms their place in the same canon and even connects their martial-arts schools through the history of the Miyagi family. There’s also their shared mentorship of a new student, Li. Although the focus on family is a major theme of the film as a whole, it’s especially prevalent in a deleted scene that takes place during the build-up to the film’s climactic duel between Ben Wang’s Li Fong and Aramis Knight’s Conor Day.

The clip focuses on Victor Lipani’s pizza shop in New York City, where Li Fong regales everyone with a story of how Mr. Han and Daniel faced off with O’Shea’s men when they tried to attack Li during the Five Boroughs Tournament before being joined Li’s mother, Ming-Na Wen’s Dr. Fong. The film’s emotional core brings together multiple generations of fighters from across the world — and in this deleted scene, released exclusively to Screen Rant, they all come together to celebrate.

What The Karate Kid: Legends’ Deleted Scene Means For The Movie

Karate Kid: Legends Fleshes Out The Emotional Core Of The Movie In A Sweet Deleted Scene

The Karate Kid: Legends “To Family” deleted scene plays into multiple themes in the film. Seemingly coming during the events of the Five Boroughs Tournament, the scene sees Li speaking with Victor and Mia in their pizza shop alongside Daniel and Mr. Han. Given that most of the cast has finally been ᴀssembled, this happens shortly before the final battle with Conor.

The scene reinforces Dr. Fong’s love for her son. It also eases the tension between Dr. Fong and Mr. Han, who had also been shown to still be dealing with the emotional fallout of Bo Fong’s death before the events of the film. It fleshes out those reconciliations ahead of the final fight.

Our Take On The Karate Kid: Legends Deleted Scene

It’s A Good Moment That Takes Away Some Of The Tension Going Into The Climax

A cute family moment that doesn’t necessarily feel necessary to the movie, the Karate Kid: Legends deleted scene is a sweet expansion of the film. The best part of the clip is the extended screen time it affords Ming-Na Wen as Dr. Fong. Dr. Fong is Li’s mother and a fairly important but minor character in the overall narrative.

While she’s also dealing with her grief over the loss of her other son, she doesn’t get as much dedicated screen time with Li as other characters. This scene likely comes between her initial hesitations about Mr. Han training Li once again and her encouraging Li ahead of his final fight with Conor.

It fleshes out her acceptance of his path and her place as his family. Wen is good in the role, so it’s nice to see her get a bit more screen time alongside the rest of the cast. It also further cements the connection between Daniel and Mr. Han.

However, those emotional beats are also factors elsewhere in the third act. The scene also lightens the mood of the movie going into Karate Kid: Legends‘ ending, however, which is likely why it was cut. Still, it’s a good emotional beat that resonates well thanks to the Karate Kid: Legends cast.