On July 9th, Dreamworks’ official Twitter (now X) announced the 7-year rumored Shrek 5. The Dreamworks community wondered if Shrek needed a 5th film after the underrated Shrek 4: Shrek Forever After. For half a decade, the ogre’s meme community dedicated themselves to creating fake movie trailers of his return. Until Eddie Murphy loosened his lips about a Shrek spinoff staring the beloved hyperactive Donkey that had fans speculating about Shrek 5 becoming a reality. But what is the real reason for Dreamworks’ development of this sequel?
The Illumination-Dreamworks Acquisition
At the start of the 2010s, Universal Pictures wanted its animation division to stay afloat and struggled to create an original idea that wasn’t based on existing intellectual property. In 2011, they assisted Illumination’s founder, Chris Meledandri in the film production of the studio’s first two films, Despicable Me and Hop. Despicable Me made an outstanding revenue from July 9th–15th with over $56 million at the box office, then doubled into the upcoming week with over $118 million. Four months later, Universal Pictures purchased Illumination’s parent company, Mac Guff Ligne for Melelandri to continue producing animated films.
Meanwhile, Dreamworks began to see their films were not reaching an audience. In 2013, Turbo would become one of their worst animated movies for its lack of premise which can be described as “If Disney Cars were snails and had a pointless plot.” Turbo could not meet its $135 million budget at the end of the year. Dreamworks dove deeper into financial debt in 2015 with their film adaptation of The True Meaning of Smekday, Home, as they barely surpassed their budget of $130 million. Then in 2016, Meledandri reached out to Dreamworks’ founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg to save the studio from shutting down with a $3.8 billion purchase.
Shrek 5 Announced in 2017
Before Shrek 5 was announced this year, one of the main cast members gave the slip of Dreamworks’ development on the film. Eddie Murphy spoke to the press about returning to his role as Shrek’s best friend, Donkey in 2017. Cinema Blend later interviewed The Boss Baby’s screenwriter, Michael McCullers who is taking charge of the new Shrek film. He says the project is very personal to him as the ogre and his friends are memorable. McCullers wants to use the four films as a blueprint to find a way to reboot Shrek while preserving the original story.
Soon, Dreamworks went silent giving no updates on the ogre’s return. This led their fanbase to predict, search for any evidence of its development, or dedicate themselves to creating fake trailers of Shrek 5. Four years passed by with YouTube being filled with Shrek-related content including the fanmade recreation of the original Shrek film by 3GI. Suddenly in 2021, a new hope rises for the Shrek franchise.
Puss In Boots Last Wish
In March 2021, Dreamworks released an announcement trailer for the Zorro-inspired fairy tale, Puss In Boots, or Puss for short. This time, he looks less realistic. With the sequel, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, Dreamworks appears to be developing a new animation style that compliments action sequences and cartoonish body language. The film stunned movie watchers worldwide during the 2022 holiday season. And for the Shrek fans, Puss’ ship set sailed to visit the land of Far, Far Away at Last Wish’s end.
Puss himself even said, “It’s time to visit an old friend.” The line left an open door on the possibility of Shrek 5’s changing its own story. So far, there is no confirmation if the script has changed. On the other hand, we can expect that Puss In Boots’ style has influenced future Dreamwork animations.
Shrek’s All-Stars Cast Returns
2022 and 2023 became the golden years of Shrek-related news. Eddie Murphy was asked by Variety about returning in Shrek 5, and replied, “I’d jumped in there for two seconds.” Then proceeds to voice his jealousy about Puss In Boots having a film. Meledandri was thrilled to hear Murphy’s enthusiasm to return as Donkey. What about the lovely ogre couple, Shrek and Fiona?
In another interview with Variety, Mike Myers sounded over-the-top when he told them, “I’d be thrilled to do one Shrek film every year.” At the same time, Shrek is one of Myer’s favorite roles as his Scottish voice and facial likeness gave the ogre an identity. For Cameron Diaz, it’s somewhat complicated as she quit acting in 2014. Her supposedly comeback film, Back in Action was put on hold due to unexpected hospitalization with her co-star Jamie Foxx. During the week, BBC has confirmed Diaz is returning to reclaim Princess Fiona.
Shrek 5 Will Turn 25
Dreamworks announced Shrek 5 will be released on July 1st, 2026. Meledandri and McCuller are aiming to celebrate Shrek’s return for his 25th anniversary. Universal has plans for the world’s favorite ogre that might include advertising their newest attraction, Dreamworks Land. Shrek originally aired in theaters on May 18th, 2001. The ogre fought against fairy tale norms through four films, telling the world he rather be the person he is. You can relive Shrek’s adventures on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vudu.
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