Jackie Chan, Ben Wang and Ralph Macchio in “Karate Kid Legends.”
Before Ben Wang embarked on a competition against his nemesis in the new Karate Kid franchise movie Karate Kid: Legends, he competed in another match — for the coveted lead role of Li Fong in the film — that was much bigger than he ever could have imagined.
“They told me that there were 10,000 other people who submitted in the first week of the open call,” Wang recalled in a recent Zoom conversation. “The open call lasted for a month. I don’t know how many people in total they were looking at for the part but it was a lot.”
Wang — who was born in Shanghai and grew up in the small town of Northfield, Minn., before moving on to college at New York University — is still humbled by the thought of how many people auditioned for the role.
“The journey of my career is, every single step, something that I don’t think I would have actually even imagined for myself when I was on the previous step,” Wang said. “Studying theater in New York and going to NYU to study musical theater professionally was a whole audition process where there were 10,000 other kids were auditioning with me for 20-30 slots in the whole program, so, I didn’t think I could do that.
“I also didn’t think I could work professionally — it’s still a long shot — and then and then I started but didn’t think I would get a big movie or TV show but I kept looking,” added Wang, who previously starred in 2024 musical version of Mean Girls and will next be featured in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk. “There were opportunities that were presented to me at points in my life where I just so happened to have the preparation to match them. It’s all really luck to me.”
Ming-Na Wen, Wyatt Oleff, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Jackie Chan and Sadie Stanley in … More
Karate Kid: Legends, which is new on digital streaming on premium video on demand, begins in Beijing, with Wang’s karate prodigy Li Fong studying under the tutelage of Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). Li Fong’s mother, Dr. Fong (Ming-Na Wen) is completely against her son’s aspirations to compete in karate, however, despite being Mr. Han’s niece.
A year prior, Li and Dr. Fong suffered a family tragedy stemming from their family’s interest in competitive karate, and in a bid for a fresh start, she and her son move to New York City for a new job at a hospital. Li, however, can’t avoid karate altogether. When he befriends another teen, Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley), her former boyfriend, NYC karate champion Conor Day (Aramis Knight) begins to bully Li.
Incentivized by a chance to help save Mia’s father’s (Joshua Jackson) restaurant from financial ruin and face his bully at the same time, Li enters NYC’s famed Five Boroughs Karate Tournament. To ready Li for the tournament, Mr. Han flies in from Beijing to train his former student and thanks to his ties to the late Mr. Miyagi (the late Pat Morita), he also enlists the help of the original Karate Kid, Daniel La Russo (Ralph Macchio).
Below is an exclusive first look on Ben Wang’s work on “Karate Kid: Legends.”
Ralph Macchio Encouraged Ben Wang To Make Li Fong His Own In ‘Karate Kid: Legends’
Given the enormous success of the Karate Kid franchise — from Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita’s original movie series to Jackie Chan’s 2010 film to Macchio and William Zabka’s Cobra Kai series — Ben Wang, needless to say, felt quite a bit of pressure to deliver big when he was cast in Karate Kid: Legends.
Luckily for Wang, Macchio helped alleviate his worries before either one of them stepped foot on set.
“Ralph gave me a call two weeks before going to set to talk me through the process,” recalled Wang. What was nice about that was he basically called to say, ‘You know, you have permission to do whatever you want … This is a film about your character and his experiences, and I’m here to bring you aboard [and help you not worry about the] legacy of the franchise. Just focus on doing basically what you’re good at and what you want with the character.’ So, that was, that was really nice to have that permission from the man.”
Of course, getting over his nerves on the set of Karate Kid: Legends wasn’t instantaneous. In addition to working with such acting greats as Macchio and Ming-Na Wen, Wang needed to wrap his head around the idea of going toe-to-toe with the martial arts legend who just so happened to be his hero growing up.
“[When I started work on the film], they were like, ‘You have to do a kung-fu fight with Jackie Chan,’ which is a ridiculous thing to ask anyone to do, really, let alone a kid from a small town in Minnesota,” Wang said with a laugh. “He’s a legend to people in general but to a young Chinese actor in Hollywood, he’s the pinnacle of a genre. He’s quite literally an icon.
“He represents action movies to me,” Wang added. “Growing up in China, he represented acting. He represented the movies. By far he is one of if not the biggest star in my childhood, especially when I lived in China and wasn’t that exposed to Hollywood and celebrities. Jackie Chan to me represented film.”
Doing a fight scene with Chan was only one part of the equation, Wang noted. He also had to take the fight to another level with his movie hero during the sequence.
“I got to meet him and then kick him in the face,” said Wang, who is still in disbelief thinking about the idea. “It’s so ridiculous that it almost took away some of my nerves. It was so hard to wrap my head around that it was easier to not let it get to me. It’s so removed from reality, like I was in a simulation or something.”
Directed by Jonathan Entwistle, Karate Kid: Legends is new on digital streaming. Karate Kid: Legends will also be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on Aug. 26.
