Looks like things are coming together for a fifth Shrek film, as Illumination’s founder and CEO reveals the original cast are already in negotiations to return.
Generally speaking, I love Shrek. It’s a fun franchise that fizzled a bit but still had interesting elements. If you had mentioned Shrek 5 to me a few months ago, I probably would have just shrugged and waited to see something first. Now, however, following the surprisingly great Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (one of my favorites of 2022), consider my hype engaged.
While promoting this week’s release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Illumation CEO Chris Meledandri sat down for a chat with Variety. There, they discussed not only the new film about to hit theaters, but what the future of the animation company is looking like. During the interview, Meledandri revealed Shrek 5 is still chugging along and it looks like the original cast will be making a 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 honor those core elements,” Meledandri said. “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.”
“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.”
There’s also some talk of a potential Donkey spin-off movie, but at the moment, let’s focus on Shrek 5 and making the return to Far, Far Away as awesome as it could be. No other details have been revealed, but considering Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ended with them returning to see some “old friends” it would make sense they would have some sort of connection to each other.
No word on when Shrek 5 might see the light of day, but with Migration launching later this year Illumination is certainly keeping busy.
