The Karate Kid (franchise)

The Karate Kid is an American martial arts drama franchise created by Robert Mark Kamen. The series follows the journey of various coming-of-age teenagers who are taught in the ways of martial arts by an experienced mentor in order to stand up for themselves after being bullied or assert their dominance towards others.

The original film series began as a trilogy, starting with the release of The Karate Kid (1984), after the success of which two direct sequels were produced: The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989). In 1994, a standalone sequel with a new protagonist, The Next Karate Kid, was released. In 2010, a remake with a similar storyline but with a different set of characters, was released. Despite maintaining the original title, the film focused on kung fu, being set in China. A sixth film, Karate Kid: Legends, with Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio reprising their original roles from the previous films, was released in 2025. This release retconned the 2010 film, placing it in the same fictional universe of the original films.

Cobra Kai (2018–2025) offers a continuation of the story that begins in the original films three decades later. While directly based on Kamen's characters, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg created this series.

An animated series, as well as tie-in video games among other pieces of merchandise, have also been released alongside the films.