Cobra Kai's comedy is at the center of its success, and this will make establishing the tone of Macchio and Chan's Karate Kid movie more complicated.
Summary
The unique comedic tone of Cobra Kai presents a challenge for the upcoming Karate Kid movie since the 2010 reboot had a more serious tone.
The contrast between the comedic tone of Cobra Kai and the serious tone of the 2010 Karate Kid movie makes it difficult to imagine how the two will blend together.
To maintain continuity and believability, the new Karate Kid movie will need to incorporate comedy, similar to Cobra Kai, in order to address the similarities between Dre and Daniel's stories.
Cobra Kai's success is part of what has made Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan's upcoming Karate Kid movie possible, but the best part of the Netflix series presents quite a problem for the new film.
Cobra Kai is going into its sixth and final season, which means fans are beginning to look forward to whatever comes next.
This makes the news that Macchio would be uniting with Chan, who starred in the 2010 reboot of The Karate Kid all the more exciting.
Seeing these two stars and their characters appear together for the next Karate Kid movie is certainly intriguing, but considering the specific flavor that has allowed Cobra Kai to be so successful, it's difficult to imagine how it will all work out.
Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio as their respective Karate Kid characters
Chan's Mr. Han was meant to be the new Mr. Miyagi, but he was a far more serious and heartbreaking character than was seen in Macchio's Karate Kid movies.
Han was quiet and deeply sad throughout 2010's The Karate Kid, and it's ultimately revealed that he carried significant guilt after witnessing (and unintentionally causing) the deaths of his wife and young son. Of course, similar to Miyagi, Han's heart begins to heal after he develops a friendship with a young karate student (this time Jaden Smith's Dre).
Still, the film as a whole wasn't nearly as lighthearted as Macchio's—they were almost of entirely different genres.
If the 2010 The Karate Kid has a different tone compared to Macchio's films, it's nothing compared to that of Cobra Kai. The Netflix series has an outrageous, almost campy brand of comedy. It's difficult to imagine this blending well with Mr.
Han's character and story, which is likely why these installments of The Karate Kid were previously said to exist in different universes. Now, the new Karate Kid movie will have to figure out how to blend Macchio and Chan's respective films within the franchise, and since audiences are now used to the outrageous comedy of Cobra Kai, it's difficult to imagine what the tone and genre of this next installment will be.
The New Karate Kid Movie Will Need Comedy To Pull Off Continuity Issues
Despite the more serious tone of the 2010 The Karate Kid, Chan and Macchio's new movie will need to embrace at least some of the comedy of Cobra Kai. The ludicrousness of the Netflix series is the only reason it has been able to get away with countless continuity and believability issues.
Cobra Kai is the sort of show that doesn't take itself too seriously, and by making self-aware jokes about how little it makes sense that adults would be so invested in kids' karate or that prison escape plans involving Jell-O as fake blood are ridiculous, the series exempts itself from close-up criticism.
This is something that Chan and Macchio's The Karate Kid must embrace as well. Since the 2010 movie was treated as a reboot, Dre and Daniel's stories are nearly identical. It makes no sense that two unrelated characters would be rescued from a group of bullies by their butt-kicking apartment maintenance workers, who teach them martial arts by making them do repetitive chores so they can win a local tournament against a better fighter.
The only way to explain away these similarities is with Cobra Kai's brand of comedy, which means a significant tonal shift from any of the Karate Kid movies. It's just another reason why the upcoming film will be that much harder to pull off.
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