Introduced to audiences by ripping a page out of a medieval storybook and wiping his ass with it, beloved ogre Shrek is poised to return to the big screen. After 14 years, DreamWorks Animation is finally making memes come true, announcing Shrek 5eva After, also known by its official title, Shrek 5, for a July 1, 2026 release. Shrek won’t sound too different, nor will Donkey or Fiona because Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz are all returning.
It’s about time that DreamWorks got off its butt and started pumping out Shreks again. The years, it seems, start coming, and they don’t stop coming, and lately, they’ve been coming without Shrek installments. Despite being unwatchable to anyone who didn’t turn 11 at the exact moment Shrek first entered theaters, the three Shrek sequels are still the studio’s highest-grossing films, and yet Shrek Forever After was released more than a decade ago. In the years since, DreamWorks leveraged its knack for flatulence-laced children’s comedies into a couple of Boss Baby and Trolls movies, to the general dismay of parents around the world. But Shrek, those movies aren’t. That’s not to say the Shrek world has been entirely dormant. 2022’s Puss In Boots: The Last Wish became the rare Shrek movie critics liked, with The A.V. Club calling it the best Shrek film yet.
A new Shrek movie isn’t the only thing on the horizon. After spilling the beans about Shrek 5 last month, Eddie Murphy also announced a Donkey movie was coming. “Shrek is coming out, and Donkey’s gonna have his own movie,” Murphy told Collider in June. “We’re gonna do Donkey as well. So we’re gonna do a Shrek, and we’re doing a Donkey.”
There we have it: A new Shrek, a movie presumably called Donkey, and in the morning, we’re making waffles.