Ralph Macchio has has a career resurgence recently after living a quiet life on Long Island and doing guest appearance. In 2018, he made a comeback with the series Cobra Kai, which is a sequel to the Karate Kid movies. This spring, he’s appearing in Karate Kid: Legends, which is set in the Miyagi-verse and takes place three years after the events of Cobra Kai. Ralph was at PaleyFest when someone brought up the idea of rebooting another one of his most famous movies, My Cousin Vinny. According to Ralph, he actually has had “conversations” with some writers about a sequel.
“Yeah, that one’s a beloved piece,” he added of the film. “It’s about finding the smart angle in.”
Macchio acknowledged that Pesci, 82, would have to be involved in some way — even if it’s a smaller role than he had in the original movie.
“He could FaceTime it in here,” he suggested…
My Cousin Vinny follows the perpetually anxious Vinny (Pesci), a big-city lawyer who has never won a case, as he helps Bill (Macchio) and his friend Stan (Mitchell Whitfield) out of a tough spot after they are accused of murder in a small Alabama town.
The endlessly quotable flick also stars Marisa Tomei, whose portrayal of Vinny’s fiancée Mona Lisa Vito earned her Best Supporting Actress at the 1993 Oscars.
I have such mixed feelings about this! My Cousin Vinny is one of my all-time favorite movies. I wrote two different term papers about it in college (I am not ashamed to admit this!) and can quote it all day long. I think if they did a reboot, it would only make sense if it was a series and Bill has now become a lawyer, inspired by what happened to him. Ugh, but still! Marissa Tomei and Joe Pesci’s dynamic in that movie is what makes it so freaking good. There would be no point without the two of them as major players.
I’m okay with reboots to properties like Practical Magic and The Princess Diaries because there’s source material to pull from. Something like My Cousin Vinny was lightning in a bottle. You gotta just leave it as is. The movie’s biological clock has stopped ticking! However, this is 2025, and we’re still solidly in Hollywood’s Age of Reboot, so a MCV sequel is probably inevitable at this point. If it’s going to happen, then I hope that they at least do right by it.
Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix and via Instagram
That movie was a blast, and ITA they should leave it alone. We don’t need sequels or reboots or remakes for everything!
I did not recognize The Karate Kid as a grown up.
He’s finally aged. He looked the same (youthful) for so long.
I was just thinking how great he looks aging, with his laugh-lines (crows feet) etc and not all taut skinned and fake like most of the other heartthrobs of my youth. Living the quiet life he did probably helped keep him out of the plastic factory. I mean, besides the eternal cutie-face lol
Fred Gwynne passed away. He was great as the judge and the reboot would not be the same without him.
The only reboot I would ever care about would be about Marissa Tomei.
Absolutely nobody wants this. LOL Isn’t he a MAGA lunatic, or am I thinking Scott Baio??
Scott Baio, 100%. He’s been an open magat since the first orange term. Afaik, Macchio is ok. But not sure.
I would like to see this if it was well made/not thrown toegether and included Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. I re-watched it recently and enjoyed it a lot. It seemed like it was better than I remember it being. We need more sassy legal underdog stories and less superheros/space odysseys in these troubled times.