Karate Kid is one of the biggest martial arts film franchises in existence. It’s honestly no surprise, really, given the source material. That very first film in the franchise made some big waves in Hollywood when it first premiered on June 22, 1984. Not only did it get overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, but it also karate chopped off a huge sum at the box office. $130.8 million USD out of a budget of just $8 million USD. That was just how much the film was as a success story at that box office. As a bonus, the film even revitalized the career of Pat Morita, and earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor to boot.
Thus, you can now understand why Karate Kid sparked such a massive media franchise. A media franchise that includes 5 mainline films, a 1989 animated series, a Netflix spinoff/sequel series in the form of Cobra Kai, and even such things as a Broadway musical, video games, and a book. Thus, you can understand why this latest revival film has everyone cheering for it. You can now also understand why it’s such a big deal for that revival film to now have its lead actor at long last.
Karate Kid: Lead Actor Details
The Hollywood Reporter has just revealed who is going to be the lead actor of the upcoming and still untitled Karate Kid film. Apparently, Sony Pictures has chosen Ben Wang to play in that role. If you’re a fan of Disney series, then that name might sound familiar to you. For this is the same Ben Wang who played the lead role of Jim Wang in Disney+’s American Born Chinese. It seems that he will now be starring once in a lead role.
That’s not all, though. According to studio insiders speaking to The Hollywood Reporter: Ben Wang “delivered a standout audition that demonstrated his deep connection to the character. It also helped that he is fluent in Mandarin and highly skilled across many forms of martial arts, including karate, wing chun/kung fu, gumdo, kempo and taekwondo. Some of those skills were already showcased on American Born Chinese, the well-regarded adaptation of the acclaimed coming-of-age fantasy graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang that also starred Michelle Yeoh.”
So now that we have our talented lead actor, all we have to do is wait for the film to premiere in theaters. You know, to see if Ben Wang can live up to his previous success here? Alas though, we still have a bit of a wait. This untitled Karate Kid film will make its theatrical debut on December 13, 2024; according to Sony. That’s still a 10 month wait as of this writing. You might as well watch the previous films and Cobra Kai to catch up on the story until then.
Tune back in to THS later to find out more about this untitled Karate Kid film when we do.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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