Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation have announced that Kung Fu Panda 4 will release on Friday, March 8, 2024. This means the film will take the place of a currently untitled DreamWorks Animation film.
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Little is currently known about the upcoming sequel, but in an interview that ComingSoon did with the executive producers of the Netflix series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, Peter Hastings said this when asked about doing more with the franchise:
“To me, Po is really the engine on this thing, and he’s such a great character,” Hastings said. “It’s just one of those characters that gets so well developed and the people become so familiar with, that you can say, ‘What if Po opens a Kung Fu studio? What if Po buys a cruise ship? What if Po [does this]?’ and it’s like, if you’re familiar with a fun character, you go like ‘that could work. There could be something there. That could do that.’”
“And that’s why the whole franchise has succeeded through the movies and the TV shows. It’s just because it’s not about ‘how are we going to come up with another story?’ It’s like, ‘how are we going to have more fun with this character?’ You know? So I think it keeps going.”
Since Jack Black returned to play the titular Panda in The Dragon Knight, it’s possible that he could return to play Po again for the fourth film.
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The Kung Fu Panda franchise began in 2008, with the first film getting nominated for an Oscar Award for Best Animated Feature. It featured the voices of Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, and Seth Rogen. Due to its success, it was followed by two more sequels in 2011 and 2016. The trilogy currently has a combined gross of over $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office.