The series picks up a few years after the events of Kung Fu Panda 3 and Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny where Po the giant panda must leave his home and embark on a globe-trotting quest across China for redemption and justice that finds him partnered up with a no-nonsense English knight named Luthera (a brown bear), also known as Wandering Blade, to find 4 elemental weapons that broke up the world a long time ago.
During National Panda Day in March 2022, DreamWorks and Netflix announced a new CGI animated Kung-Fu Panda series, with Jack Black reprising his role as Po from the films and serving as executive producer with Peter Hastings (The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants) and Shaunt Nigoghossian (Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!), while story edited and co-exective produced by Kipo writers Chris Amuck and Ben Mekler.[10][11]
The concept idea for the series began as a road buddy comedy that takes the viewers all over in pursuit of their goal to try and catch the bad guys. Jack Black had a cool vision for what an epic journey would be, one that fits well from the first Kung Fu Panda film while having a darker, more mature tone with the show versus past chapters also marks how the series is expanding the franchise.[12] Season 2 expands the concept further to explore Indian culture and Central American culture and deepens the characters made from the first season.
Assets from Paws of Destiny were used to build the sets but some episodes have 2D animation styles based on their own setting. One is rendered as comic graphic art, since an unpublished comic book is the central icon of that particular chapter of the story, and another one has a British-looking, lithograph kind of look.[3]
A score soundtrack from Kevin Lax (The First Purge, Burning Sands) and Robert Lydecker (Iron Fist, Lethal Weapon, Sleepy Hollow, Designated Survivor) was released on July 15 by Back Lot Music.[13]
Animation production services are provided by Technicolor, 88 Pictures (Season 2), and Stella Creative Labs while storyboard services are provided by Dave Enterprises and Kok & Co., Pty, Ltd.
Release
The first season of Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight was released on July 14, 2022, on Netflix.[14][15] A second season, announced in December 2022,[16] was released on January 12, 2023.[17]
