Following Universal’s purchase of DreamWorks Animation, the studio announced that it would be revisiting the Shrek franchise for a fifth instalment in the series, and now during an interview for his new film The Boss Baby, screenwriter Michael McCullers has given a brief update, describing it as “a reinvention”.
“Shrek 5 is being developed,” McCullers told THR. “I finished that script which I really, really, really love. It’s really personal to me. It’s got a pretty big reinvention behind it that I guess I can’t really reveal, but since DreamWorks was sold to Universal in that time for over $3 billion, I imagine they’re particularly interested in it stepping up and actually figuring out the future of the franchise in that way on the corporate level. Reinvention was sort of called for. There’s been four movies and a lot of material, so the characters are pretty beloved and they’re great characters, but you also have to think of a pretty new take at that point.”
Shrek 5 was originally slated for release in 2019, and with the script now complete, that remains a possibility, although there has been no official word from Universal as to when we might expect it, or whether the likes of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz will be returning to the voice cast.
Originally published April 3, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
