Wax on, wax off …
On June 22, 1984, audiences were first introduced to Los Angeles’ new kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who learned both karate skills and lasting life lessons from the insightful Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita). The film became a smash hit, earning over $100 million worldwide and kicking off a multi-film franchise known as the “Miyagi verse.”
While the 2010 reboot starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith offered a standalone story centered on kung fu, The Karate Kid, Part II (1986), Part III (1989), The Next Karate Kid (1994) and the Netflix series Cobra Kai all exist within the same shared universe. Now, both worlds are set to collide with the newest installment, Karate Kid: Legends, which hits theaters on May 30, 2025.
Legends reunites Macchio’s Daniel and Chan’s Mr. Han as they train their new prodigy, Li Fong (Ben Wang).
“Seeing how important Li Fong is to Mr. Han and Daniel’s relationship to Miyagi — there’s a parallel there,” Macchio said in a first-look teaser. “And now, combining those worlds in an authentic way, the kung fu and karate, it’s something fresh.”
Ahead of the release of Legends, here’s a look back at where everything started (after all, “balance is key”) and see where the original stars are today — and which ones reprised their roles along the way.
Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso
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Macchio was best known for his role as Johnny Cade in 1983’s The Outsiders before playing Daniel LaRusso, the new kid at his L.A. high school. After Daniel is bullied by his classmates, he is encouraged to take karate lessons to defend himself.
Apart from scoring another starring role in the 1992 hit comedy My Cousin Vinny, Macchio has appeared on series and reality TV shows, including Ugly Betty, How I Met Your Mother, The Deuce and Dancing with the Stars.
Embracing the impact of his work in The Karate Kid, Macchio went on to reprise the same character in Part II, Part III and Legends, as well as on Cobra Kai from 2018 to 2025.
“I knew of the impact of The Karate Kid film for decades and decades and how it’s a piece of pop culture and a piece of your childhood. So I knew it was beloved. I knew the characters were beloved … It’s equal parts nostalgia and, kinda now, contemporary relevance,” he said during a 2022 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “When I get 8- and 10-year-old kids that are inspired by these characters and the themes of that movie, there’s only one thing to do: Embrace it.”
Off-screen, Macchio has been married to nurse practitioner Phyllis Fierro since 1987. Together, they share two children: son Daniel (named after his Karate Kid character) and daughter Julia (who had a role on season 4 of Cobra Kai, playing Daniel LaRusso’s cousin).
In 2022, Macchio told PEOPLE how proud he was watching Julia on the set of Cobra Kai.
“She knocked it out of the park,” he said. “I was the proud father on set that day. As soon as she ran our first take, everybody was like, ‘Holy crap, she’s got this character.’ ”
Macchio received a star next to the late Morita on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024. He was joined by family and friends, and former Karate Kid and Cobra Kai costars William Zabka and Tamlyn Tomita spoke at the celebration.
“I’ve just learned to be so grateful and appreciative at this age in my life, absorbing and learning and sharing the wisdom that I’ve gained from others, paying that legacy forward, whether that be with the young cast of Cobra Kai or friends of my kids,” Macchio said at the ceremony.
Noriyuki “Pat” Morita as Mr. Miyagi
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Morita played the iconic role of Mr. Miyagi, a maintenance worker in the LaRussos’ new apartment building. However, Mr. Miyagi also has a secret: He’s a karate expert.
Before The Karate Kid, Morita was already recognizable for his portrayal of Matsuo “Arnold” Takahashi on Happy Days from 1975 to 1983.
Still, The Karate Kid was the actor’s career-defining role. Morita was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for his performance as Miyagi. He reprised his role as Mr. Miyagi in both Karate Kid sequels, as well as the fourth film, The Next Karate Kid, opposite Hilary Swank in her first major role.
After his time in the martial arts franchise, Morita starred on the Nickelodeon series The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo as Mike Woo, Shelby’s (Irene Ng) grandfather. The show was groundbreaking for being the network’s first show with an Asian lead.
Morita was married to actress Evelyn Guerrero from 1994 until he died of kidney failure in 2005 at the age of 73. His impact and memory have lived on, even on Cobra Kai. In 2022, Macchio wrote a guest essay for PEOPLE honoring Morita’s mark as Mr. Miyagi.
“The legacy of your work and contribution to the world in your portrayal of Mr. Miyagi shines brighter than ever,” Macchio wrote to his late costar. “He lives and breathes in a new chapter of the Karate Kid universe.”
William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence
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Zabka played Johnny Lawrence, a bully who beats up Daniel and later becomes his adversary in the All Valley karate tournament.
After starring in The Karate Kid, Zabka landed roles in 1985’s National Lampoon’s European Vacation and 1986’s Back to School. He also returned for The Karate Kid Part II. Throughout the early 2000s, Zabka became a regular on Syfy (then named the Sci-Fi Channel) and starred in many of their made-for-TV movies, including Python (2000), Python 2 (2002) and Antibody (2002).
In 2018, Zabka reprised his role as Johnny on Cobra Kai, where his character and Daniel eventually put their rivalry to rest — a development he said he was thankful for.
“For years, I had dads dragging their kids over to meet me just to point out the biggest bully on the planet,” he told PEOPLE in 2021. “To have people rooting for my character, for me to feel that, is something I’ve never experienced. It’s remarkable.”
Since 2008, Zabka has been married to his wife, businesswoman Stacie Zabka, with whom he raised three children.
Elisabeth Shue as Ali Mills
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Elisabeth Shue played Ali Mills, Daniel’s crush and Johnny’s ex-girlfriend.
A few years after The Karate Kid, Shue starred in the 1987 cult hit Adventures in Babysitting, which spawned a Disney Channel remake in 2016.
Shue continued to land massive roles, starring in Cocktail (1988), Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Part III (1990). She earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1996 for her role in Leaving Las Vegas. Her last major role before taking a break was in 2000’s Hollow Man opposite Kevin Bacon.
After that film, Shue went back to Harvard to complete her degree in political science — she had withdrawn in 1989 to focus on acting full-time, per the Harvard Crimson.
Shue returned to acting in the 2010s and has had leading roles on several shows — including Super Pumped, On the Verge, The Boys and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation — as well as in films such as Battle of the Sexes (2019), Greyhound (2020) and The Good Half (2023). Shue also reprised her role as Ali Mills on two episodes of season 3 of Cobra Kai in 2021.
“I was a little worried about going on the show at first because I didn’t like the way my character had been written out of Karate Kid 2,” she said during a 2025 panel discussion at MegaCon Orlando. “It’s all about the vindication of Ali. We needed that. Without Ali, there is no Karate Kid. There is no Cobra.”
In 1994, Shue married Davis Guggenheim, a filmmaker known for the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth and the 2023 Emmy Award-winning Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Together, the couple has three children.
Martin Kove as John Kreese
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Martin Kove played John Kreese, Johnny’s karate mentor, who encourages his students to play dirty and harass Daniel.
Kove reprised his role in Part II and Part III, and after appearing on the season 1 finale of Cobra Kai, he joined the main cast in the following season. In terms of where Kreese ended up, Kove told PEOPLE in 2025 that he was proud of the character’s arc throughout the series.
“I’ve been pushing vulnerability for this character for a long time, and sometimes he gets it, sometimes he doesn’t,” he said. “But the way it ended … it just was rich. It’s what I like to do more than kicking ass and all that.”
Kove continued, “I like the fact that they took the character all the way from the darkest place in Karate Kid. I signed on to do the deal only if they’d write vulnerable scenes and show how he got to be the way he was, and they did, slowly, in five seasons, exactly what I wanted to do.”
Outside of the Karate Kid franchise, Kove had a starring role on the hit series Cagney & Lacey and appeared in Wyatt Earp (1994), Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) and Fight Another Day (2024). In 2021, he competed on season 30 of Dancing with the Stars; however, he was eliminated in the first round.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Kove has been dating Mary Scavo Squire since 2016. He’s also a father to twins Rachael and Jesse — the latter played the bully who torments the younger version of Kreese in flashbacks during seasons 3 and 4 of Cobra Kai.
Randee Heller as Lucille LaRusso
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Randee Heller played Lucille LaRusso, Daniel’s hardworking single mom who relocates with her son from New Jersey to California.
Before joining the cast of The Karate Kid, Heller had already made entertainment history when she held a recurring role as Alice on Soap, becoming one of TV’s first openly lesbian characters.
After skipping The Karate Kid Part II, Heller returned for Part III in 1989. Since then, she’s had a busy career, with regular appearances on series like Who’s the Boss, Mad Men, Wilfred and Cobra Kai.
Heller’s role on Mad Men earned her an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actress in a drama series thanks to her scene-stealing performance as secretary Ida Blankenship. She also starred in the 2024 heist comedy Murder at Hollow Creek with Mickey Rourke, Jason Patric and Penelope Ann Miller.
She shares two children with her longtime partner, TV producer Robert Griffard.
Chad McQueen as Dutch
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Chad McQueen played Dutch, an aggressive Cobra Kai student who ran with Johnny’s crew.
The Karate Kid is Chad’s best-known project. Aside from that, he starred in low-budget and straight-to-video films such as Death Ring (1992), Firepower (1993) and The Fall (2001), which was his final acting credit. He left entertainment to pursue sports car racing in the 1990s and 2000s.
In 2006, he experienced a near-fatal crash while training for the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race. Chad recovered from his injuries and later founded his own company, McQueen Racing, which builds custom high-performance cars.
Chad is the son of racing and acting legend Steve McQueen and actress Neile Adams. From 1987 to 1990, he was married to Stacia Toten. Together, they had one child, Vampire Diaries actor Steven R. McQueen. In 1993, Chad married Jeanie Galbraith, and they had two children, Chase and Madison.
On Sept. 11, 2024, the actor and race car driver died at age 63. His former castmate, Zabka, paid tribute to him two days after, writing on Instagram: “Sadly, we lost the legendary Chad McQueen yesterday. I have so many great memories of him when we were filming The Karate Kid. He was truly one of [a] kind. He marched to the beat of his own drum and always made me laugh.”
Tony O’Dell as Jimmy
Tony O’Dell Instagram
Tony O’Dell played Jimmy, another Cobra Kai student and a good friend of Johnny.
The Karate Kid was O’Dell’s first major role. In 1986, he returned for Part II, and that same year he began starring as Alan Pinkard on the hit series Head of the Class.
In 2019, he reprised his role as Jimmy on Cobra Kai.
“I don’t think they could’ve handled [the show] any better,” O’Dell said during a 2021 appearance on the Cobra Kai Kompanion podcast. “How the characters have developed and changed, how they are handling the series, the way it looks on camera, the music, just all of it.”
In addition to acting, O’Dell has had a long career behind the camera working as an acting and dialogue coach on The George Lopez Show, Girl Meets World and Night Court. He also worked with Zendaya on her Disney Channel shows Shake It Up and K.C. Undercover.
Rob Garrison as Tommy
Tony O’Dell Instagram; Rob Garrison Twitter
Rob Garrison played Tommy, a friend of Johnny and a Cobra Kai student.
After The Karate Kid, Garrison starred in the 1986 films Iron Eagle and The Karate Kid Part II. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, he continued making appearances on shows like MacGyver and Coach before retiring from acting.
Later in his life, Garrison had health issues but was able to guest star on an episode of Cobra Kai in 2019. Later that year, he died at age 59 from liver and kidney failure.
In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, Macchio honored his late costar.
“Rob Garrison was a kind gentleman from the first day I met him to the last day we spoke. I am so glad he had the opportunity to show his range and genuine heart with his performance last season on Cobra Kai.”
At the end of season 3’s premiere episode in 2021, there was a tribute to Garrison: “Rob Garrison 1960–2019” and “Cobra Kai never dies.”
Ron Thomas as Bobby Brown
Columbia Pictures; Ron Thomas Instagram
Ron Thomas played Bobby Brown, a Cobra Kai student who is instructed to injure Daniel with an illegal move that ultimately gets him kicked out of the competition.
Thomas returned for The Karate Kid Part II and had a minor role in 1987’s The Big Bet before retiring from acting. He reprised his role as Bobby Brown on seasons 2, 3 and 5 of Cobra Kai.
According to his website, Thomas is a martial artist and offers motivational speeches and online classes about mindfulness as Sensei Ron Thomas.
