The Shrek film franchise has been in somewhat of a hiatus other than the occasional special or Puss in Boots spin-off film. Now it’s been revealed by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri that Shrek 5 is officially in development.
Additionally, as shared while speaking with Variety, Meledandri adds that the original voice cast is set to return. Of course, this includes the likes of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.
He first explained what the development process for Shrek 5 involves:
“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.”
He further discussed the original cast. Although they haven’t signed on just yet, they are in talks to return.
“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,” he said.
This lines up with statements made by Donkey actor Eddie Murphy in the past. In fact, Murphy has been adamant about doing a Donkey spin-off film, and Meledandri likes the idea. He was asked if Donkey could support such a film, much in the way that Puss in Boots has. Here was his response:
“Without question.”
Now we’ll have to see what happens. But for fans of the Shrek franchise – it looks like everything is headed in a positive direction. As always, fans can stay tuned to ScreenGeek for additional updates as we have them. It looks like we’ll be having plenty of news with both Shrek 5 and a potential Donkey spin-off on the way.