Hinted at during the final moments of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Illumination’s Chris Meledandri has confirmed that we’ll be returning to Far Far Away for a fifth Shrek outing, as-well-as hinting at another spin-off in the shape of a solo-outing for Eddie Murphy’s Donkey.
During a sit down with Variety before the launch of Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. Movie, founder and CEO Chris Meledandri talked about his own studio’s forthcoming slate of sequels that includes Sing 3, Despicable Me 4, and another instalment of The Secret Life of Pets, but also used his role as a creative partner to DreamWorks Animation to announce that they’d be expanding the Shrek franchise.
Meledandri said on returning to the swamp that “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 honour those core elements, 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.”
While there are no deals in place for Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz or Eddie Murphy at the time of writing, Meledandri did say that negotiations were progressing and 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.”
The news comes in the wake of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish‘s $478 million global gross, which prompted Meledandri to say that “without question” the character of Donkey could also carry off his own Shrek spin-off movie.
SEE ALSO: Read our review of The Super Mario Bros. Movie here
Since launching in 2001 the Shrek franchise has grossed $3.9 billion at the worldwide box-office, with 2004’s Shrek 2 the highest earning instalment with a whopping $928,760,770.
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