Action star Jackie Chan says he will never stop doing his own stunts – despite being aged 71. The Karate Kid: Legends actor insisted that he wants to perform fight scenes until the day he dies and has no plans to kick back and put his feet up.

Jackie said: “Of course, I always do my own stunts. It’s who I am. That’s not changing until the day I retire, which is never! When you’ve done it for 64 years straight, there’s no physical preparation anymore. Everything is in your heart and soul; it is muscle memory. Granted, action sequences have come a long way technologically. In the old days, the only choice we had was to be there and jump; that’s it. Today, with computers, actors can do anything, but there’s always a sense of reality that you feel is missing.”

He added that producers and editors bringing in digital effects has meant audiences see more impossible stunts on screen these days. He called the advancements “a double-edged sword,” in that “on one hand, actors become more and more capable of doing impossible stunts with the help of technology, and yet, on the other hand, the concept of danger and limit gets blurred and the audience is numb to it.

“But I’m not encouraging anybody to risk their lives to do the stunts like I did; it truly is too dangerous.”

Jackie will reprise his role of Mr Han from 2010’s The Karate Kid, this time opposite Ralph Macchio returning to the film franchise as Daniel LaRusso following a stint as the character on YouTube and Netflix series Cobra Kai.

Mean Girls actor Ben Wang also stars as Li Fong, a new kung fu prodigy who struggles to fit in after moving from Beijing to New York City.