Nearly two decades after Shrek and Donkey last graced the big screen, they’re coming back for another adventure. On Tuesday, DreamWorks Animation announced that Shrek 5 is coming to theaters on July 1, 2026, with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz set to return. They even resurrected a classic Smash Mouth song for the announcement.
The continuation of the Shrek franchise seemed all but inevitable following the huge critical and financial success of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in 2022. Despite an 11-year absence from the big screen following the first Puss in Boots back in 2011, The Last Wish made over $480 million worldwide. The Shrek cinematic universe can clearly still draw a crowd.
Of course, this announcement wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone paying attention to the news media in recent months. In an interview with Collider ahead of the premiere of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Eddie Murphy revealed he had been recording lines for Shrek 5.
“We started doing [Shrek 5] months ago,” Murphy told Collider at the end of June. “I did this, I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year, we’ll finish it up. Shrek is coming out, and Donkey’s gonna have his own movie. We’re gonna do Donkey as well. So we’re gonna do a Shrek, and we’re doing a Donkey [movie].”
DreamWorks has yet to announce said Donkey movie, but given that Murphy spilled the beans on Shrek 5, it’s probably a safe bet that the Donkey spinoff is real, too.
The Shrek franchise currently consists of six movies, including Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After. The four mainline entries have generated around $3 billion at the box office, and that’s not counting the two Puss in Boots spinoffs.
