The Shrek franchise began life as a parody of all things Disney. The original 2001 movie is fondly remembered by many today, and led to a whole series of films the various denizens of this tongue-in-cheek fantasy world. The most recent spinoff, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, did pretty well at the box office, and now Dreamworks Animation is looking to get the original gang back together.
This news comes from Illumination Entertainment founder Chris Meledandri, who also serves as a creative emissary to Dreamworks. He was talking to Variety about the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie and got a bit sidetracked into Shrek. “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,” he 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.”
That original cast includes the likes of Mike Myers (Shrek), Cameron Diaz (Fiona), and Eddie Murphy (Donkey). “We anticipate the cast coming back,” Meledandri said. “Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return.”
Shrek 5 in the works with the original cast
Indeed, both Myers and Murphy have recently said they’d love to come back as Shrek and Donkey respectively, so this isn’t just hot air. “It’s evidence of his strong enthusiasm for a role that he so brilliantly inhabited and really created alongside the artists at DreamWorks,” Meledandri said of Murphy specifically. “I found that comment to be very exciting.”
The last mainline Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After, came out in 2010. So it’s been a while, but spinoffs have kept the memory of the franchise alive in the meantime. With that kind of enduring popularity, it was never a question of if Shrek would return, but when.
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