Kung Fu Panda 3 followed by Kung Fu Panda 4
Kung Fu Panda 3 is a 2016  computer-animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation, China Film Group Corporation, Oriental DreamWorks, and Zhong Ming You Ying Film, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the third installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011). The film was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.
Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, James Hong and Jackie Chan reprise their roles from the previous films, with Randall Duk Kim reprising his role of Oogway from the first film. They are joined by Bryan Cranston (replacing Fred Tatasciore, who went on to voice Master Bear), J. K. Simmons and Kate Hudson in the roles of Li Shan, Kai, and Mei Mei, respectively. In the film, Po is reunited with his birth father and discovers the existence of a secret Panda Village, but must soon learn to master chi and prepare the pandas to fight against Kai, a spirit warrior intent on destroying Oogway's legacy. The film was dedicated to Nancy Bernstein, who served as Head of Production at DreamWorks Animation, as she died from colorectal cancer at the age of 55 on September 18, 2015.
Kung Fu Panda 3 premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 16, 2016. It received a limited release in China on January 23, 2016 for a special three-hour sneak preview and was released in the United States on January 29, 2016 in 3D, grossing $521 million worldwide against its $145 million budget, becoming the second highest-grossing film released in the month of January behind American Sniper. The film received generally positive reviews; the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus praises the visuals and narrative. A spin-off animated series, Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, aired on Amazon Prime Video from November 16, 2018 to July 4, 2019, while a sequel animated series, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, began airing on Netflix in July 2022, the latter of which features Black reprising his role as Po. A fourth film is currently in production and is set for release on March 8, 2024.