After seeing Kung Fu Panda in 2008 the first thought that came to my mind was “I can’t wait to see this series stretched out to six films!” Speaking to Empire, it looks like Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg had the exact same thought, and not just for that franchise. We knew Dreamworks sequels were coming, but not this many. Comparing to Shrek, he said the following:
“What our movies and our franchises also share in common with Shrek is that they have a beginning, a middle and an end; they’re not open-ended. Each of the films is a chapter of a story and in every instance we knew what that journey was or could be before we even started.”
I somewhat find that hard to believe with Shrek, but alas. He also reveals massive spoilers to the conclusion to the next Madagascar, if you even care want to check them out. He adds that they can squeeze a fourth film out of it.
Now, we all loved How To Train Your Dragon and knew more was coming. Katzenberg reveals that they are definitely planning three films, but since there are eight books expect more. Especially if the stellar box office continues. He also gives a hint of where they are headed:
“Yes. But there are elements of them that actually… as you know, there are many islands in the world of Berk, and different things there, so we’ll see. But right now, today, we know that there are three for sure that we want to tell and there may be more. We haven’t thought, you know, how do we continue beyond that.”
As for the Kung Fu Panda franchise, we have the second film hitting this summer. They’ve also already “mapped out” all six chapters so expect Jack Black not to go broke anytime soon, no matter how many Gulliver’s Travels he makes.
What do you think about all this sequel news? Would you rather seem them develop original ideas?