Why did Daniel Bernhardt replace Jean-Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport 2: The Next Kumite? After several of his early roles in the film industry, including a villainous role in the 1986 film No Retreat, No Surrender, Van Damme finally got his big break in the 1988 tournament film Bloodsport. The film would set Van Damme on the path to becoming one of the biggest action stars on the planet, and would also serve as a template for underground martial arts tournament films. Despite this, Van Damme was nowhere to be seen in the three Bloodsport sequels that eventually followed, with all three instead helmed by Daniel Bernhardt.
The first Bloodsport saw Van Damme play a real-life figure, Frank Dux, with its premise of the tournament known as the Kumite being based on Dux’s own purported (and heavily disputed) competitive experiences. Bloodsport 2 and Bloodsport 3 would both still revolve around the Kumite, with Bernhardt playing the new protagonist, Alex Cardo, with Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite seeing him as undercover cop John Keller. As it turns out, Bernhardt’s entry into the Bloodsport series would curiously connect to Van Damme himself.
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In a recent interview with Scott Adkins on his YouTube series The Art of Action, Bernhardt revealed that during his early work as a model, he was cast to fight opposite Van Damme in a Johnny Versace commercial. Describing this experience as his first time fighting on camera, Bernhardt says “At that moment in life, I had an epiphany. I just knew this is what I have to do.” Bernhardt stated that he later got a phone call from a producer on Bloodsport 2, with Bernhardt at first
believing it to be a crank call and hanging up. Once it became clear that the offer was genuine, Bernhardt later met with the producer, with Bernhardt being offered Bloodsport 2 and signing a five-picture deal, though Bernhardt also mentioned that it was still two years before the movie actually happened. Bernhardt also later learned from Van Damme that he had been “putting everything on hold” with the intent to do Bloodsport 2, but this ultimately didn’t happen.
Bernhardt also spoken on his frequently mentioned physical resemblance to Van Damme, something that is hard to deny when looking at the box art for Bloodsport 2 showing Bernhardt in the air mid-kick and also displaying his Van Damme-levels of flexibility. Bernhardt mentioned that “My brother looks even more like him than I do”, while also commenting that while he can see their resemblance in pictures of Van Damme, “If you see us next to each other, we don’t look anything alike”. In any case, Bloodsport 2 would prove to be surprisingly on the same tier as the original, with Bernhardt really showing what he can do in the film’s many fight scenes.
Since the Bloodsport sequels, Bernhardt has also been heavily involved in stunt work and is perhaps more widely known today for his roles as Agent Johnson in The Matrix Reloaded and Kirill in John Wick. Bernhardt will also soon be seen in the upcoming sci-fi action film Skylin3s and will also reprise his role as Agent Johnson in The Matrix 4. If that were the case, a Versace ad starring none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme would be a surprising passing of the torch between the two.