First ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Trailer Introduces Viola Davis’ Shapeshifting Villain | Video

DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 4,” the latest installment in the franchise that began with back in 2008, is nearly here. And a brand-new trailer has just been released, featuring Jack Black’s return as the unlikely warrior. Watch the “Kung Fu Panda 4” trailer above and see what the film’s director Mike Mitchell and producer Rebecca Huntley would reveal about the new sequel below.

Why Now?

The last “Kung Fu Panda” entry, “Kung Fu Panda 3,” was released back in 2016. It begs the question: why now? And for Mitchell, it was all about finding a reason to return. “The biggest thing was we wanted to make sure that we had the right story, to tell the most epic adventure,” Mitchell said. “And it’s probably why it took so long for us to make since the last iteration, but we really did spend more time than I’ve spent on other films, making sure that we had the right story and the culmination of not just the past three movies, but the Po character and his evolution.”

Huntley said that “we’ve got quite a few generations who are focused on the movie,” between the first movie coming out in 2008 and the last movie in 2016. “Whether they’re fans of the original or they entered somewhere along the way, or perhaps people that are coming into this franchise brand new, we wanted this to be a movie that could actually support all of those different folks, so the fans as well as the new folks,” Huntley said.

Mitchell said that some of the newer animators at DreamWorks Animation were especially jazzed about the opportunity to work on the latest entry in the franchise. “Now they’re crying, getting to work on ‘Kung Fu Panda,’ it was very emotional. But at the same time, made almost a tooth fall out of my head, I felt so old,” Mitchell said. “It’s neat too, they brought a bunch of their sensibilities to the film as well to make it different from the past few.”

And some of those sensibilities include a renewed energy for the action sequences, hallmarks of the franchise, this time inspired by GoPro footage the team had seen, anime and the work of live-action stunt coordinators. “We’re like, Let’s incorporate all that cool stuff into our film,” Mitchell said. And they did.

Jack’s Back

Of course, you can’t have a “Kung Fu Panda” movie without Jack Black playing Po. Black had returned to the property in 2022 with the “Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight” animated series, but this will be the first time Black has been on screen as the character since 2016. And according to Mitchell and Huntley, he was very happy to be back.

“He is so invested and passionate about this character,” Mitchell said. “And he is Po. Not just in shape and size, but his personality – he is enthusiastic, he’s action-packed, he’s a fanboy. And then the biggest thing that I discovered, because I’ve worked with him before, but not as a director, is that he is really a thoughtful actor. He really gets into his role and works on it. And it’s sad because I don’t know if anyone notices that sometimes these funny cartoon characters, the performer really brings a lot of depth to it.” Huntley concurred: “He’s so thoughtful.”

And it’s not just Black who is back – as is teased in the trailer, Ian McShane’s fearsome villain Tai Lung returns (more on that in a minute) and, Mitchell and Huntley confirm, the Furious Five (Masters Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper, and Mantis) will be back. When we asked if Gary Oldman’s villainous peacock Lord Shen from “Kung Fu Panda 2” would return, we were treated to a kung fu smackdown (in the nicest possible way). For the record, we still think he’ll be back.

A Brand New Baddie

And how does Tai Lung return, exactly? Well, thanks to an evil sorceress named the Chameleon, voiced by Oscar-winner Viola Davis. It’s the Chameleon, using dark magic, who brings past villains back from the spirit realm and uses their powers. Talk about evil!

“I think this franchise has created the best villains of all the DreamWorks movies. Tai Lung is my favorite villain of all time. To top that was really difficult,” Mitchell said. He’s quick to note that the Chameleon marks the first female villain in the franchise history. “She is supernatural and has crazy skills that no other villain has had. And she’s got fighting skills, but she’s more brainy than the rest of them, so she’s really calculating.”

“She’s diminutive, but yet she packs a wallop because she is a shape-shifting sorceress. That always keeps Po on his toes,” Huntley said.

And it’s not just the Chameleon who is introduced into the movie. Po has a new sidekick in Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina), a grey corsac fox who helps our hero on his journey. “She’s a thief, but she’s also a friend, and she’s also helping him to take down the villain, so he’s confused,” Mitchell said. Po is black-and-white and sees things in black-and-white. But the introduction of this new character, who is grey, shows him that “there’s two sides to every coin” (as Mitchell said). Huntley said that Zhen teaches Po the importance of ”not judging a book by its cover” and that “heroes can be found in the most unlikely of places.”

There’s one other character who pops up in the trailer – a pangolin named Han who Huntley teases is “the leader of the Den of Thieves” and is voiced by none other than recent Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan. Po the Panda versus Waymond Wang? Now that we’ve got to see.

“Kung Fu Panda 4” will be in theaters on March 8, 2024.

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