The Later Journey to the West

The series continues the tale a thousand years after the pilgrimage of the original novel. Its lead is a new character, Sun Xiaosheng (孙小圣, "Little Sage Sun"), who awakens as the Monkey King of Flower-Fruit Mountain and sets out on a second journey west to recover the true scriptures. The first arc, Flower-Fruit Mountain (花果山篇), premiered on August 31, 2026. Characters from the original, such as the pilgrims' companions, are announced for later arcs. The first season is still in progress.

The source is a Ming-Qing novel of the same title, one of several sequels written after Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West. Chinese reports describe the series as an original story that borrows the novel's premise and characters, not a page-by-page adaptation. The English title is not official; some outlets render it Journey to the West: The Sequel.

It was made on Mango Lingchuang (芒果灵创, "Mango Spirit Creation"), Mango TV's in-house AI content platform, which the broadcaster says gathers more than 40 image and video generation models. The producers say the team generated 109 characters and 143 scenes. Director Li Dongshen (李东珅) describes the characters as a feifuyuanshi erchuang (非复原式二创, "reinterpretation, not restoration"). The goddess Chang'e's robes draw on the Tang-dynasty painting Zanhua shinü tu (《簪花仕女图》, "Ladies Wearing Flowers"), the Four Heavenly Kings are based on murals at Fahai Temple, and the Heavenly Palace is drawn as a human-shaped form with twenty-four layers rising like a spine.

One phrase recurs in the coverage: bian shen bian bo (边审边播, "review while airing"). Mango TV and state media say this is the first series to use the arrangement under a regulator policy package known as Guangdian 21 tiao (广电21条, "the broadcasting authority's 21 measures"), in which production, review and broadcast overlap, so later episodes can be adjusted in response to review and audience feedback.