Everybody was Peacock flying. The NBCUniversal streamer announced Thursday morning that Kung Fu Panda 4, the latest installment of the $2 billion DreamWorks Animation franchise, will arrive on June 21.
While sister studio Illumination’s films lately, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Migration, have done 120-day theatrical windows before streaming, Kung Fu Panda 4 lands after 105 days, placing it squarely in the middle of Illumination and the previous DreamWorks film with a theatrical release, Trolls Band Together, who had 90 days. In its time, the Jack Black-led film made over $540 million at the box office.
In the film, Po, the fully realized Dragon Warrior, learns he must find a new hero to take over so that he may fulfill his destiny as the next spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. For one last mission, he teams up with a quick-witted corsac fox and thief named Zhen, voiced by Awkwafina, to find that a new villain, the powerful sorceress The Chameleon, is behind recent sightings of previously-defeated villains, and must be defeated herself.
Kung Fu Panda 4 was nominated for three Kids’ Choice Awards earlier this week and also stars Viola Davis as The Chameleon, Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu, Bryan Cranston as Po’s biological dad Li Shan, James Hong as Po’s adopted dad Mr. Ping, Ian McShane as Tai Lung, and Ke Huy Quan, with Ronny Chieng and Harry Shum Jr. in other roles. Mike Mitchell directed and executive producers, with Stephanie Ma Stine as co-director, from Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke’s script. Rebecca Huntley produced. The announcement came as today the original Kung Fu Panda returned to the service, and both films will be joined by 2016’s third film on June 26. As for the second film, which was originally released in 2011, it’s strangely not streaming anywhere. In the words of this film’s big cover, its loneliness is killing it.
Source: Deadline