Angelina Jolie remains one of Hollywood’s most popular names despite seemingly slowing down when it comes to lending her talents to movies. The Maleficent star last graced the big screen in 2021 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Eternals as Thena.
She hasn’t taken a back seat in her professional life, though. Instead, the 48-year-old has spent her time in humanitarian efforts. Further, earlier this year, she made waves in the fashion industry by launching Atelier Jolie, a sustainability-focused fashion studio. Considering how much is on her plate, it seems only Jolie’s love for animated movies could bring her back at the box office.
Why Angelina Jolie Loves to Work in $1.8 Billion Franchise
Angelina Jolie has given her voice to animated characters in five movies to date, including three Kung Fu Panda installments. Her last such stint came in 2020 in The One and Only Ivan – the story about a gorilla named Ivan who with the help of a wise elephant Stella tries to escape from captivity. Jolie has voiced Stella in the movie.
The actress’s most successful role in the world of animation remains Tigress in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Tigress is one of Master Shifu’s (Dustin Hoffman) students at the Jade Palace. The series has been a huge financial success, grossing over $1.8 billion at the box office. But most importantly, for Jolie, it allows her to experience a very different and refreshing side of acting as an artist. She explained (via TheThings):
“Doing an animated movie [where you’re just providing the voice] is a very different process than doing the ones where you are actually in front of the camera. I love it. I’ve heard some people don’t, but I think it’s the greatest thing. Maybe if that’s all you did you’d feel restricted and like you also had other things to share, but for me, it’s great – you get stripped of so many things and you are just using your voice. So as an artist you think differently about how you approach it, how you communicate with just one part of your instrument. So it’s all very interesting, you know?”
Accordingly, it won’t be far-fetched to assume that Jolie might make her comeback to the big screen with another animated movie that would strip off her other talents and just depend on her voice once again.
Latest Update on Angelina Jolie’s Kung Fu Panda 4
The Wanted actress’s IMDb page suggests her next project will be Kung Fu Panda 4, which is in the post-production stage. Back in 2022, animation studio DreamWorks announced the fourth installment to the Jack Black-led franchise will hit the theaters on March 8th, 2024.
During CinemaCon 2023, Black, who portrays Po, teased Kung Fu Panda 4‘s plot by revealing his character would be training a fox named Zhen to become the new Dragon Warrior (via The Wrap). There’s also a villain, The Chameleon, who possesses the “totally scary and totally unfair” ability to bring back villains from past Kung Fu Panda films.
Who will voice these new characters remains unknown, but the likes of Jolie, David Cross (Crane), and Jackie Chan (Monkey) are all expected to reprise their popular mainstay characters.
