Kung Fu Panda 4/Production

Production

Development

On December 3, 2010, then-DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said that there was a possibility the series could have three more sequels after Kung Fu Panda 3, bringing it to a six-film series. On January 13, 2016, Collider asked the filmmakers of Kung Fu Panda 3 about the possibility of a fourth film. Co-director Jennifer Yuh Nelson stated, "It's one at a time. We want to make this a perfect jewel, and then we'll see what happens after that". Co-director Alessandro Carloni said, "With the sequels, we don't want to try to have them feel open-ended. We want it to feel like a completed journey, and we feel this movie does. And then, if a fantastic story presents itself, great". On August 2, 2018, when asked about the possibility of Kung Fu Panda 4, Nelson replied that she always saw the series as a trilogy, but was open for a fourth installment as long as the franchise focused on Po.

In August 2022, DreamWorks Animation confirmed that Kung Fu Panda 4 was in production. At CinemaCon in April 2023, more details for the film were revealed, such as the premise as described by Jack Black. It was also announced that Mike Mitchell was set to direct the film, with Stephanie Ma Stine co-directing and Rebecca Huntley producing. Mitchell was a creative consultant on the first film and an executive producer on the third film. The film was originally planned to be a live-action/animated hybrid, according to Ma Stine. Characters such as The Chameleon (known as The Collecter) and Zhen would have been humans. This will all be eventually scrapped.

Writing

By December 2023, it was reported that Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger returned to write the screenplay. In February 2024, Darren Lemke was revealed to have co-written the screenplay. Mitchell described Kung Fu Panda 4 as a love letter to the first film. Despite its connections to previous entries in the series, he wanted the story to stand on its own. When producing the third film, Mitchell felt that Po's character development from the first film was wrapping up due to finally becoming the Dragon Warrior, so he wondered what if another sequel took "all that" away, leading the filmmakers to find some "really great heavy themes" that they felt are important for the modern world. Additionally, Mitchell wanted to evolve Po's character, introduce new characters, and expand the franchise's world, feeling that the film took so long to be produced because the filmmakers wanted a perfect story that could evolve Po by making him learn something to advance to the next level. He described Po as having a black-and-white view of the world and wanted to pair him with a more morally grey character, Zhen. Mitchell also wanted a character who Po can be frustrated by, like how Shifu gets frustrated by him.

For the Chameleon, Mitchell sought to make her a more-brain-than-brawn kind of villain. He went on to say that she is the smartest and most supernatural foe Po has faced. He described Chameleon as a mirror to Po in that both characters were underestimated by society for their bodies, but went on to gain high status. He said, "So Po has become the greatest hero, and now she's the greatest villain". Mitchell felt that one of the things the Kung Fu Panda franchise stands out for, aside from Black's Po, are its villains, so he made sure that the Chameleon could be as formidable as Tai Lung, Lord Shen and General Kai, hence his reasoning to specifically bring the former back into this sequel's story.

Casting

In May 2023, it was reported that Awkwafina had joined the voice cast of the film. In December 2023, it was announced that Ke Huy Quan and Viola Davis would join the cast, with the latter playing the villain of the film, The Chameleon. Lori Tan Chinn and Ronny Chieng were also announced as new cast members, with Ian McShane, Bryan Cranston, James Hong, and Dustin Hoffman reprising their roles from the previous films. Mitchell stated that he is a fan of McShane's work and that it was a "blast" to be able to work with him; had McShane refused to reprise his role as Tai Lung, there was no alternate plan for the film's story, as filmmakers had "locked in" for Tai Lung's return.

In December 2023, Mitchell stated that Masters Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Mantis, and Viper—known collectively as the Furious Five—would make an appearance in the film and that they are "off on their own individual missions", with producer Rebecca Huntley confirming that there would be "a glimpse of the Furious Five". In a March 2024 Discord Q&A session in a fan server, co-director Stephanie Ma Stine noted that the Furious Five were not originally going to appear despite protests from writers, artists, and animators. Ma Stine explained that it was due to the costs of the original actors, especially Angelina Jolie as Tigress. However, the marketing department told the filmmakers to include them in a cameo appearance.

Animation and design

Mitchell stated that the film's fight scenes reflect advances in both technology and kung fu, and took more influence from anime than previous films in the series. Stunt performers from Marvel films joined production to give the animators moves to study and use in the choreography. The Chameleon was DreamWorks' most complex character to animate, with a total of 8,130 controls. While most of the animation for the film was provided by DreamWorks Animation Glendale, Jellyfish Pictures—who previously worked with DreamWorks on How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming, Spirit Untamed, The Boss Baby: Family Business, and The Bad Guys—handled the additional asset production services using proprietary software like Premo and Moonray.

Kung Fu Panda 4 and The Wild Robot will be the last two films to be made entirely in-house at DreamWorks Animation, as Cartoon Brew reported on October 6, 2023, that the studio would be moving away from producing films in-house in their Glendale campus to rely more heavily on outside studios after 2024.

Music

In December 2023, Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro, the former of whom also composed for the first three films, were announced to compose the film's score. A cover of Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time" by Tenacious D is featured in the end credits. The album was released on March 8, 2024, simultaneously with the movie's release, by Back Lot Music.