After transforming himself from clumsy bonehead to a slightly less clumsy bonehead with martial art skills, not to mention protecting the Valley of Peace as the sworn Dragon Warrior, Po is now poised to make the trip back home for Kung Fu Panda 3, with today’s all-new trailer teasing a reunion between him and his native species. Spoilers: they’re all equally as dumb, by and large.
All of this is set in motion upon the arrival of John Goodman’s papa panda, who appears in Po’s quaint home town before greeting his wayward son with a warm and fuzzy embrace. A few well-timed comedy jibs later and Po and his father are plotting course for a secret panda sanctuary hidden deep within the mountains. But danger is afoot once more, and it’s up to Jack Black’s bumbling protagonist to whip his newfound allies into shape.
Perhaps it’s the prolonged release window that has quelled excitement for Kung Fu Panda 3, but considering that across the previous two installments, DreamWorks’ animated martial arts series has pulled in an eye-watering $1.2 billion at the global box office, it was almost a question of when, rather than if, we’d see a bona fide threequel.
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni, the studio’s animated sequel boasts quite the ensemble, including Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Randall Duk Kim, Bryan Cranston, and Kate Hudson supplanting Rebel Wilson for the role of Mei Mei, an elusive, ribbon-dancing panda who falls head over heels for our martial arts expert.
Ducking out of the crowded December release window (read: avoiding Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Kung Fu Panda 3 is on course to release on January 29 and March 18 in North America and the UK, respectively.
When Po’s long-lost panda father suddenly reappears, the reunited duo travels to a secret panda paradise to meet scores of hilarious new panda characters. But when the supernatural villain Kai begins to sweep across China defeating all the kung fu masters, Po must do the impossible—learn to train a village full of his fun-loving, clumsy brethren to become the ultimate band of Kung Fu Pandas!