When Does The New Legends of Monkey Season 3 Come Out? Is It Renewed?

What is The New Legends of Monkey about?

The New Legends of Monkey is a New Zealand-produced action fantasy that takes the classic Journey to the West story and remakes it for contemporary television, which means swapping reverence for rowdiness. You watch it for the same reason you'd watch any ensemble adventure: the chemistry between misfits, the increasingly ridiculous obstacles they face, and the payoff of seeing them learn to work as a team. It's a show that wants to entertain you week to week rather than build toward something momentous, and there's honesty in that.

The tone is deliberately cheeky. Monkey is an arrogant teenage god stuck in a human body, Pigsy is an obnoxious former deity, and Sandy is sarcastic in ways that suggest she's done with everyone's nonsense. They're saddled with Tripitaka, an ordinary girl with no powers, and their journey involves demons, magic, and a lot of bickering. The show finds comedy in the clash between high fantasy stakes and characters who can't stand each other, which means it works best when it leans into the stupid humor rather than pausing for earnest character reflection. It's not trying to be prestige television, and that's the best thing about it.

Critics and audiences were lukewarm. The show sat at 6.5 on IMDb from a decent sample size, which suggests people found it likeable enough to finish but not compelling enough to champion. It had its fans, particularly those who enjoyed the cast's rapport and the sheer willingness to be silly, but it never became a conversation piece. TVNZ aired two seasons across roughly two years before letting it end, which indicates modest but not overwhelming support.

The show occupies the lower reaches of the action-fantasy ensemble space, below series like The Witcher or Grimm that have stronger emotional cores or mythology, but with more energy and humor than most streaming platform fantasy-by-committee. The real achievement is simply that it exists as a charming, unpretentious piece of entertainment that doesn't mistake a silly premise for an excuse to be careless.

Created by Craig Irvin, Gerard Johnstone

Is The New Legends of Monkey renewed or cancelled?

Why did The New Legends of Monkey end?

The New Legends of Monkey wrapped after two seasons and twenty episodes, a relatively brief run for a show that had managed to build a devoted following across TVNZ 1 and international audiences. The series, a reimagining of the classic Journey to the West tale set in a post-apocalyptic future, offered the kind of imaginative world-building and genre-blending that appealed to a specific audience, but that specificity worked against it in the wider television market. With only two seasons to develop its mythology and characters, the show had just begun to establish itself when production ended.

The economics of a New Zealand broadcaster making an ambitious fantasy series likely played a decisive role. TVNZ 1 operates with limited resources compared to the streaming giants and major networks bankrolling similar projects, and a show that requires substantial effects budgets and overseas post-production work becomes difficult to justify without either strong domestic ratings or a clear international distribution deal. The gap between the show's respectable IMDb rating of 6.5 and whatever audience figures it was actually pulling suggests it found passionate viewers but not enough of them to sustain continued investment.

Rather than being abruptly cancelled, The New Legends of Monkey appears to have ended as planned after two seasons. This allowed the creative team to conclude the story on their own terms rather than face an unexpected axe. For a show that required the kind of sustained commitment and resources it demanded, a quiet, deliberate exit was probably the most dignified outcome a New Zealand broadcaster could offer.

The New Legends of Monkey Season 3 Release Date

Best & worst episodes

The New Legends of Monkey seasons

The New Legends of Monkey trailer

Where to watch The New Legends of Monkey

NetflixstreamNetflix Standard with Adsstream

The New Legends of Monkey latest news