Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is an American animated television series, developed by Mitch Watson and Peter Hastings for Netflix. It is the third TV series in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, following Legends of Awesomeness and The Paws of Destiny, and the first in which Jack Black reprises his role as the voice of Po, replacing his replacement Mick Wingert. Produced by DreamWorks Animation Television, the series premiered on Netflix on July 14, 2022. A second season was released on January 12, 2023. A third and final season was released on September 7, 2023.
Contents
Premise
The series picks up a few years after General Kai's defeat and Shi Long's defeat where the Dragon Warrior Po the giant panda must leave his home and embark on a far-reaching 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 four elemental weapons that broke up the world a long time ago.
Voice cast
Main
Jack Black as Po / Op
Rita Ora as Sir Luthera / Wandering Blade
Kai Zen as young Sir Luthera
Chris Geere as Klaus Dumont
Della Saba as Veruca Dumont / Rabia's Mother
James Hong as Mr. Ping
Rahnuma Panthaky as Rukhmini / Zip / Additional Voice
Ed Weeks as Colin / Mashmeater / Basil / Rock Monster / Additional Voice
Melissa Villaseñor as Akna
Shohreh Aghdashloo as Forouzan
Recurring
Omid Abtahi as Sir Alfred
Parry Shen as Weimin / Additional Voice
Todd Haberkorn as The Emperor of China / Additional Voice
Barbara Goodson as The Queen of England
Mick Wingert as Sir Drake / Rabia's Father / Additional Voice
Kinza Khan as Rabia
Martin Aistrope as Master Mastodon
Sean T. Krishnan as Jayesh / Additional Voice
Anjali Bhimani as Padma
Deepti Gupta as Diya
Richard Ayoade as Kyle
Harvey Guillén as Pelpel
Jorge Diaz as B'ah / Pax / Additional Voice
Sarah-Nicole Robles as Queen Zuma
Toks Olagundoye as Lucinda / Rosalie
Episodes
Production
Development
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 (Pinky and the Brain, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants) and Shaunt Nigoghossian (Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!), while story edited and co-executive produced by Kipo writers Chris Amick and Ben Mekler.
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 to 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. 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.
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.
Animation production services are provided by Technicolor (now known as Mikros Animation), 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. A second season, announced in December 2022, was released on January 12, 2023. A third and final season, announced in August 2023, was released on September 7, 2023.
