As Entwistle shared with the outlet, he definitely thinks Jaden Smith’s The Karate Kid character is still absolutely canon and out there somewhere in the world of Karate Kid: Legends. It seems like perhaps he wasn’t deemed necessary to the story of Ben Wang’s Li Fong and therefore is not in this new movie.

Legends director Jonathan Entwistle strived to restore the cinematic identity of the beloved franchise.  The British filmmaker - who's most known for helming idiosyncratic streaming series such as End of the F***ing World and I Am Not Okay With This - designed his feature directorial debut to unite Karate Kid and Cobra Kai fans from every generation.