While whispers of a fifth Shrek movie have been around for quite some time, it looks like the sequel may finally be happening, with an NBCUniversal employee seemingly accidentally revealing that Shrek 5 will be released in 2025. The employee in question reportedly revealed the release date for Shrek 5 on their LinkedIn page before quickly deleting it. Unfortunately for them, the Internet always keeps the receipts.
While any further details remain unknown at this time, as prior accidental Internet leaks have proven, we can likely take this as confirmed that the studio is planning to bring Shrek back to screens in 2025.
This apparent release window comes following an update on the Shrek follow-up back in April from Chris Meledandri, the CEO of Illumination. Speaking with Variety at the time, Meledandri revealed that they are hoping to bring back the original cast, including Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz, while approaching Shrek 5 the same way they did the hugely successful The Super Mario Bros Movie.
“We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return…It’s not that dissimilar to the process that we went through with Mario, where you look at what the core elements are that audiences have loved, and you do your very best to honour those core elements,” Meledandri explained. “And then you’re hard at work to build story elements and new characters that take you to brand new places. The original cast is a huge part of that.”
Introduced back in 2001 by DreamWorks Animation, the first Shrek introduced audiences to the titular bad-tempered but good-hearted ogre voiced by Mike Myers. Living in a world of kings, princesses, knights, and fairy tale creatures, Shrek perfectly parodies the many stories that begin “once upon a time…” while carving out its own identity as a fairy tale for the modern world.
Shrek has been a huge success for Dreamworks, spawning several sequels in Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010). While there have been several spinoffs, including last year’s critically acclaimed Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, fans of the big green ogre have been waiting years for a fifth adventure.
And while it sounds like there’s still a few years to go, at least we now know (probably) that Shrek 5 is not quite so far, far away.
As well as the return of Myers, Murphy, and Diaz, Puss in Boots actor Antonio Banderas is also likely to return, with the actor himself teasing the development of a fifth Shrek at the end of last year.
“I’ve been with this cat for almost 20 years. The first time I did Puss In Boots, I was working on Broadway, so I did my first session there. I’ve done five movies now. There is probably gonna be another, and Shrek is probably coming back.” – movieweb.com
