Kung Fu Panda 5 Set Up Proves Tired $2B Franchise Isn't Going Anywhere

Summary:

• Kung Fu Panda 4 has been demonstrating impressive results in the box office despite the critics’ ambiguous opinion – which brings up the idea that the franchise isn’t planning to come to its end yet.
• The creators’ intention to continue with more sequels seems to be partially confirmed by one specific line in Kung Fu Panda 4 that may refer to the future films’ plot details.
• Though the theory looks pretty much plausible, the next Kung Fu Panda’s film hasn’t been confirmed yet.

It’s definitely a big come-back year for Kung Fu Panda’s franchise. Despite mixed critical reviews, the fourth film is gathering accolades from the viewers and hitting some major milestones after having dethroned Dune: Part 2 and helped the whole franchise reach the $2 billion mark in the box office worldwide.

Though it’s not only commercial success that is stopping the franchise from calling it a day after 16 years — and some hints can be noticed in the movie.

Kung Fu Panda 4 follows everyone's favorite character Po who this time embarks on a search for someone who’ll be deserving of becoming his successor as the Dragon Warrior — now that Po himself moves on to the Spiritual Leader’s position.

Though in the new chapter the courageous panda has to face a new villain, the Chameleon, he also encounters his main rival Tai Lung — and while Po is surrounded by past and present enemies, one specific line in the film seems to refer to the franchise’s future antagonists.

In the scene where Po appears alongside his biological father Li Shan the latter mentions that his son has already had to fight with demons and demigods while he was the Dragon Warrior.

While the mentioned fight has never been shown before in any of Kung Fu Panda’s films, it’s fair to suppose that Po will most likely meet demons and demigods again in the upcoming sequels (the creators have recently revealed that they would like to bring to the screen at least two more of Kung Fu Panda’s films, but the fifth movie hasn’t been confirmed so far).

Another suggestion in this regard is that in the future Po will finally face much stronger rivals — whose appearance will also make sense here, given the fact that Po is set to be the Spiritual Leader and now has to become more familiar with the spiritual side of the movie’s idea.

So far a theory like this seems to be very much plausible, especially taking into account the way that Kung Fu Panda 4 ended. But now that the fourth movie has just been released, this theory will take quite a long time to get verified.