DreamWorks Animation announced Tuesday that “Shrek,” one of its popular film franchises, will have a fifth installment released in theaters July 1, 2026.
“Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz” are returning to the “Shrek” franchise, presumably reprising their respective roles, the animation company stated on X (formerly Twitter). (RELATED: Dennis Quaid Takes On One Of His Biggest Roles In The Upcoming ‘Reagan’ Biopic)
Not too Far, Far Away… @Shrek 5 is coming to theaters on July 1, 2026 with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz. pic.twitter.com/3j6ctXpPGu
— DreamWorks Animation (@Dreamworks) July 9, 2024
The “Shrek” series is a fantasy-comedy which centers around an ogre, Shrek, and companions including a talking donkey, Donkey, as they set off on various adventures. The franchise is loosely based on “Shrek!,” a 1990 children’s book by William Steig about a reclusive ogre who finds himself thrown into a battle over the fate of the world, according to TV Tropes.
Murphy revealed in June that DreamWorks had started voice recording for the film.
“We started doing Shrek 4 or [Shrek] 5 months ago,” Murphy told the outlet. “I did this. I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year, we’ll finish it up,” he added. Murphy also revealed that a spin-off film about his character, Donkey, was also in the works, the outlet reported.
DreamWorks’s decision to release a fifth feature film in the series breaks a hiatus; the previous four installments were released between 2001 to 2010, Variety reported. The “Shrek” franchise has also spawned a spin-off series revolving around Puss in Boots, a sidekick of Shrek, according to Variety.
Antonio Banderas, the voice actor of Puss in Boots, has not yet been confirmed to be reprising his role for the new film, Variety noted.
The “Shrek” franchise stands tall as “the second-highest-grossing animated franchise of all time,” PRN Newswire reported in 2022.
