The ‘Kung Fu Panda’ franchise has passed $2 billion at the box office.
The Big Picture
- Kung Fu Panda 4 is a box office hit, surpassing the success of its predecessor, with $525 million in global gross earnings.
- Director Mike Mitchell aims to take future sequels to new heights, keeping the story of Po engaging and action-packed.
- While the Furious Five didn’t appear in this installment, there is potential for a spinoff featuring these beloved characters.
Skadoosh! It was brilliant to see Po’s journey to Juniper City unfurl before our eyes in Kung Fu Panda‘s typical pattern of humorous action. The performance of Kung Fu Panda 4 was well received both commercially and among critics. With a cumulative global gross standing at $525 million, Kung Fu Panda 4 has already surpassed the box office feat of its predecessor, Kung Fu Panda 3. This has established the film as the most successful animated film of the year so far. The success of the sequel has the creators of the animated series already looking forward to future installments. Kung Fu Panda 4 director Mike Mitchell has declared that he wants prospective sequels of the animated series to “keep going bigger.”
There are various routes by which the story of Po can be further expanded upon to offer viewers with Kung Fu Panda 5. Speaking in an interview with ComicBook, Mitchell looked forward to these sequels with hopes of making it even bigger than it’s ever been. “I think no matter what, we keep going bigger. Whether I’m working on it or not, I’m in the theater watching these things,” the director said. The infectious character of Po is brought to life through the vocal prowess and charisma of Jack Black, and with him, Mitchell believes there is tremendous room for growth with the power of the Skadoosh.
Speaking on the prospects, Mitchell said:
“If Jack Black is performing as Poe the Dragon Warrior, I just think that character could last forever. He’s so charming, he’s so action packed. Not to mention this world is so filled with characters. We just took a little break from The Furious Five, which everyone can’t wait to see those guys and what they’re doing and what they’re up to. There’s so much story to tell and it never feels to me like it would be something intimate. It’s always got big action. It’s hard for me to imagine it’s just taking place in one room. I mean, we had so many ideas from this film that we just couldn’t fit in.”
The Special Unit That Is The Furious Five
While Kung Fu Panda 4 was a brilliant success on multiple fronts, it did so without appearances from some of its beloved characters. While Po embarked on his journey to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of the Peace, the film didn’t feature the Furious Five. Speaking in a separate interview, Mitchell revealed there was a lot he and his team would have loved to add to the film, but simply couldn’t, saying:
“We wanted to put so much into this film, but we knew we couldn’t make a four-hour long Oppenheimer Kung Fu Panda. We all love The Furious Five. They’re such cool characters, and they’re such a part of the franchise, but they have been a big part of the story for part one, two, and three. We thought for this one we might take just a little bit of a break. I mean, we had a bunch of stories with them that just didn’t fit into the film.”
The director added that it was nice that the importance of the Furious Five was noted, suggesting a spinoff as the way to go for the characters. Adding:
“It’s okay to take a break as long as we tell everyone at the end, “Man, they’re still a big part of this world and they’re not going anywhere.” I’m so glad that you recognized that it was important to us to really pull them in and show everyone that we love The Furious Five. I’ve always thought maybe there’s even a spinoff with just the Furious Five.”
Kung Fu Panda 4
After Po is tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, he needs to find and train a new Dragon Warrior, while a wicked sorceress plans to re-summon all the master villains whom Po has vanquished to the spirit realm.
- Release Date
- March 8, 2024
- Director
- Mike Mitchell , Stephanie Stine
- Cast
- Jack Black , Viola Davis , Awkwafina , Dustin Hoffman , Ke Huy Quan , James Hong , Bryan Cranston , Ian McShane
- Runtime
- 94 minutes
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Writers
- Jonathan Aibel , Glenn Berger
- Studio(s)
- DreamWorks Animation
- Franchise(s)
- Kung Fu Panda
This article was originally published on collider.com