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Wax on, wax off. The latest movie in the “Karate Kid” franchise, “Karate Kid: Legends,” ended with a dramatic fight — that included hundreds of background actors. “We had 650 extras in
there on the [sound] stage for that sequence, to really sell it,” director Jonathan Entwistle exclusively told The Post. EXPLORE MORE “Karate Kid: Legends” follows a new character, Li (Ben
Wang), who has trained in Kung Fu with martial arts master Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who was friends with the late Mr. Miyagi (Nariyoshi Miyagi). When his mom moves him from China to New York,
Li befriends local pizzeria owner Victor (Joshua Jackson) and crushes on Victor’s teen daughter, Mia (Sadie Stanley). Eventually, Li finds himself in a karate tournament, facing off
against Mia’s aggressive ex-boyfriend, Connor (Aramis Knight). Mr. Han comes to help Li train, since he knows kung fu but not karate, and also entreats original “Karate Kid” Daniel LaRusso
(Ralph Macchio) to help train Li. Li and Connor’s climatic fight takes place on top of a fake New York City skyscraper — filmed on a soundstage. “We filmed using the volume technology,” he
explained, referring to the visual effects technology that’s also been used on shows like “The Mandalorian” and “House of the Dragon.” “The whole skyscraper building with the elevator and
all of those things – we built it for real on a stage. And then we built big 40-foot screens all the way around this set.” He said production then went to New York City, “and we found the
exact pinpoint position in Manhattan where we could take the camera and the drones all the way up – to get the exact skyline that we wanted at the exact same time of day.” Once they captured
the New York City skyline footage they wanted, they filmed for over 24 hours to “get all the sky versions.” Once they got the footage, “we tweaked the sunset to get a most perfect sunset
with the most perfect New York skyline to be able to work with that. Because it’s very important for me that the movie felt like it was in New York.” “By New York, I mean Manhattan – kind of
Flatiron [building] adjacent. That’s New York for the vast majority of people in the world,” he explained to The Post. “I was, like, ‘let’s make it feel like we were right in the middle
there.’” The epic fight sequence took about two weeks to film. And because they were on a soundstage with 40-foot screens displaying their Manhattan skyline footage, production “had a
perpetual sunset.” “Karate Kid: Legends” is in theaters now.