Summary
Joshua Jackson’s casting in Karate Kid marks his return to sports movies after over a decade, adding excitement to the genre.
The possibility of Jackson playing a mentor or a villain in Karate Kid can bring his sports movie career full circle in a fun and unique way.
With Jackson’s role still undisclosed, fans are eager to see how he will fit into the franchise alongside Macchio and Chan.
The new Karate Kid movie has added another exciting piece of casting, and it marks a sports movie return decades in the making. The sixth Karate Kid movie took a significant step forward when it was confirmed that Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan would return to the franchise. Reprising their roles as Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han means the film will bring together two different sides of the franchise, all while introducing a new protagonist. The 2024 Karate Kid movie will star Ben Wang in the lead role, but Macchio and Chan will not be the only actors that he interacts with.
A major development came with the announcement that Joshua Jackson was cast in Karate Kid. The details of his role were not disclosed, but it marks a major role for the former 90s star. He broke out with some roles as a kid and continued to find notable parts in Cruel Intentions and Dawson’s Creek. Jackson has remained a consistent presence in Hollywood thanks to TV appearances in Fringe, The Affair, Little Fires Everywhere, and The Affair. This makes Karate Kid Joshua Jackson’s biggest movie role in over a decade, and that adds to the specialty of his genre return.
Related Karate Kid 2024: Release Date, Cast, Story & Everything We Know Everything you need to know about the new Karate Kid movie coming from Sony in 2024, including cast members and the potential storylines.
Joshua Jackson Is Finally Returning To Sports Movies After The Mighty Ducks Trilogy
What makes Joshua Jackson’s Karate Kid casting so exciting is that it marks his long-awaited return to sports movies. Jackson’s breakout role in Hollywood came through the Mighty Ducks trilogy that came out between 1992 and 1996. He played Charlie Conway in all three entries, the captain and leader of the Mighty Ducks hockey team. Jackson is ultimately a key reason why those movies are so beloved thanks to Charlie’s growth and his chemistry with Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay.
The surprising part of Jackson’s success with the Mighty Duck movies is that it did not launch a trend of him being in sports movies. The closest he came was in 2005 by lending his voice to Racing Stripes, the sports movie about racehorses. He notably did not have a physical presence in the movie, with his horse character serving as the villain. While there is a chance that Joshua Jackson is the villain of Karate Kid’s 2024 movie, his sports movie return might also see him resume the place of a franchise hero 28 years after Mighty Ducks.
Joshua Jackson missed out on returning as Charlie for The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers season 1 due to COVID-19
Karate Kid Can Help Joshua Jackson’s Sports Movie Career Come Full Circle
Even without knowing exactly who Joshua Jackson will play in Karate Kid, it is known that he will not be the main lead. This means that the movie could help bring his sports movie career full circle in one of two ways. The first option is that Karate Kid cast Jackson to play a mentor to the new kid lead. Since he got his start playing one of the young kids who needed mentorship and coaching in The Mighty Ducks, seeing Jackson put his spin on the Gordon Bombay archetype would be a fun connection to his sports movie history.
The other option is that Joshua Jackson will go from kid hero to grown-up villain in Karate Kid. The presence of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han means that the franchise already has two mentor options for Ben Wang’s character. What the movie is still missing is a formidable opponent and possibly the teacher of a rival dojo. This could be the role that Jackson has in Karate Kid. If so, he’d go from being the sweet kid protagonist to the evil adult villain in the sports movie genre.
Karate Kid (2024)
Director Jonathan Entwistle
Release Date December 13, 2024
Writers Rob Lieber , Anthony Tambakis