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Ben Wang stars in “Karate Kid: Legends,” Giving Franchise a Boost in Asian Representation
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 02 Jun, 2025
Wang’s casting marks the first time an Asian American is playing the role and reignites a conversation about representation.
When “Karate Kid: Legends” hit theaters this past Friday, viewers were treated to something they had not seen in the franchise's 39-year history: an Asian American karate kid.
By playing the lead role of Li Fong, twenty-five year-old Chinese American Ben Wang now holds the distinction that no one in either the previous five "Karate Kid" films, six-season series "Kobra Kai," and 13-episode "Karate Kid" Animated Series could claim.
Wang, who was born in China and grew up in California, has already had a successful career in films and tv shows that put a specific focus on Asian identity such as Disney’s “Chang Can Dunk” and Disney series “American Born Chinese.”
Starring alongside Wang in the newest film are Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan. Macchio starred in a similar role to Wang's current one in the original "Karate Kid" film and Chan served as a karate mentor in a subsequent film.
For the 2% of people who are unfamiliar with the plot of the original Karate Kid: after being repeatedly bullied, 17-year old Daniel LaRusso meets meets the older Mr. Miyagi, who mentors him in martial arts. LaRusso was played by Ralph Macchio, an Italian American and Miyagi was portrayed by Japanese American Pat Morito.
To some degree, I always felt like the casting of a non-Asian American in Macchio's role actually made sense for the story. The lack of a cultural connection between the two characters made their unlikely relationship all the more powerful.
When the "Karate Kid" film series was rebooted in 2010 with Jaden Smith now taking on the lead role with Jackie Chan as his mentor, the fact that the karate kid was played by a Black actor felt even more poignant than the original. The mentor and student were still of different races, but in this case, both marginalized members of a majority white society.
That said, while the casting choices for the karate kid himself at least made sense to me, there remains little explanation for the lack of Asian American representation in virtually any prominent role besides those played by Jackie Chan and Pat Morito.
This all poses questions about representation.
Some might argue that sharing karate with a non-Asian audience and growing the practice is in and of itself a win that should be celebrated, regardless of who portrays the characters. Others, however, might call this cultural appropriation. One could argue that filmmakers who fail to fully give a voice to those who created karate are profiting off of something that isn’t theirs.
To be clear, there are no right answers here. But we can at least agree that whatever casting mistakes this franchise may have made are a marked difference from, say, white actress Emma Stone’s portrayal of a Native Hawaiian in the 2015 film "Aloha" or the strange decision by Marvel’s “Dr. Strange” to have a Tibetan character from the comics played by White British actress Tilda Swinton.
It’s also important to remember that representation alone is not the be all and end all. If the product is not otherwise up to par, it may do an overall disservice to the culture being represented.
When last weekend’s “Lilo and Stitch” release set box office records, we rightfully celebrated the likelihood that Disney will continue telling rich stories surrounding prominent AAPI characters.
“Karate Kid: Legends,” however, has garnered just a 59% critics score on RottenTomatoes and opened to a slightly below expectations $21 million box office haul.
Some might argue that sharing karate with a non-Asian audience and growing the practice is in and of itself a win that should be celebrated, regardless of who portrays the characters
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