The film was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni and written by the writing team of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.

They are joined by Bryan Cranston (replacing Fred Tatasciore, who went on to voice Master Bear), J. K. Simmons and Kate Hudson as new characters.

[6] The franchise's second sequel animated series, Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, aired on Amazon Prime Video from November 16, 2018, to July 4, 2019, then followed by the third animated series, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, began airing on Netflix in July 2022, and features Black reprising his role as Po.

Disheartened, Po returns home, where he meets Li Shan, a panda who received a message from the universe that his son was alive.

After introducing Li to Shifu and the Five, Po and the Five defend the Valley of Peace from Kai's jade zombies, the remains of the kung fu masters who had their chi stolen.

While training, Po tells Tigress that he hopes to get close enough to Kai to put him in a Wuxi Finger Hold and send him back to the Spirit Realm.

To save the others, Po uses a trick from Shifu, grabs Kai and executes the Wuxi Finger Hold on himself, banishing them both to the Spirit Realm.

After happily reuniting with the others and his fathers, Po takes on his new role at the restored Jade Palace, where he trains the pandas and the residents of the Valley in kung fu and chi.

In 2010, DreamWorks Animation (DWA) CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that the Kung Fu Panda franchise was planned to have six movies, or "chapters", altogether.

"[24] On July 25, 2014, it was announced that Hans Zimmer, who co-scored the first two Kung Fu Panda movies with John Powell, would return to score the film.

[8] In December 2014, the film was pushed forward to its original release date of March 18, 2016, to avoid competition with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

[28] AMC Theatres partnered with Fox and DreamWorks Animation to play the movie in Mandarin at seven theaters, and in Spanish at 14 locations in the U.S and Canada, creating a mix of subtitled and dubbed formats of Kung Fu Panda 3.

[30][31][needs update] According to Deadline Hollywood, the strategy behind such a staggered release was to take advantage of certain opportunistic dates that presented themselves, such as the Chinese New Year in February for China.

[29] Box-office pundits also noted that the film did not face any serious competition with other new releases, such as The Finest Hours and Fifty Shades of Black, nor with holdovers The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens; all were expected to gross close to $10 million.

[37] In China, expectations were high for the film, with Nancy Tartaglione of Deadline Hollywood anticipating a bigger opening weekend than in the U.S., and a higher total gross.

A three-hour special sneak preview was screened, earning $6.4 million from two different versions of the film,[39] topping the daily box-office charts.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Kung Fu Panda 3 boasts the requisite visual splendor, but like its rotund protagonist, this sequel's narrative is also surprisingly nimble, adding up to animated fun for the whole family.

[46] Justin Chang of Variety gave a positive review, saying that "a winning lightness of touch prevails in this delightful continuation of the durable DreamWorks franchise".

[47] Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly gave Kung Fu Panda 3 a rating of B, commenting that the film was "just complicated enough to reward steady viewers and just simple enough for parent escorts to enjoy without much prior knowledge".

[50] Forbes gave a mixed review, negatively comparing Kung Fu Panda 3 to its predecessors, and describing it as "a comedown from the first two superb entries", but conceding that the film was "visually gorgeous and generally entertaining".

[13] On January 13, 2016, Collider asked the filmmakers of Kung Fu Panda 3 about the possibility of a fourth film, with co-director Jennifer Yuh Nelson answering, "It's one at a time.

"[63] On August 2, 2018, when asked about any updates on Kung Fu Panda 4, Nelson replied that she did not know and had always seen the series as a trilogy, but that she was open to the idea of a fourth installment, as long as the focus remained on Po.

[65] In April 2023, during CinemaCon, it was announced that director Mike Mitchell will direct the film, with Stephanie Ma Stine as a co-director and Rebecca Huntley as a producer.

[66] On December 12, 2023, it was announced that Awkwafina, Viola Davis and Ke Huy Quan would join the cast, playing Zhen, Chameleon and Han, respectively.

[67][68][69] It was also announced that Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane, Bryan Cranston and James Hong would reprise their roles from the previous films.

[72] The series follows Po as he must leave his home to embark on a globetrotting quest for redemption and justice that finds him partnered with a no-nonsense English knight known as the Wandering Blade.