Did A Social Media Misstep Just Reveal Shrek 5's Release Window?

Sometimes it takes a tiny accident for great news to come to the fore. So it might be for the Shrek franchise with "Shrek 5" — announced back in 2016  — which may have just had its release date leaked.

The news arrived through a LinkedIn account update made by NBC Universal intern Shreya S. Among the projects they claimed that they helped provide consumer product ideas for was "Shrek 5." The intern included the release date of each project, and according to them "Shrek 5" is slated to take its first bow in 2025. The update to their resume has since been deleted, adding extra credence to the rumor that the release date might be genuine. 

While there has been no official announcement as to the current status of "Shrek 5," Dreamworks announced in 2019 that a "Shrek" reboot is in the works, to be helmed by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. "Puss in Boots," a spin-off series from the "Shrek" world, is also slated to be rebooted. It appears that at some point the reboot idea and that of the announced 2016 sequel may have collided to form one film. No matter which way the project ends up going, Meledandri seems quite enthusiastic about the future of the franchise — and is dedicated to keeping the film series centered on aspects and characters that fans know and love.

There's currently no logline for "Shrek 5" and no casting details have been released to the public yet regarding the film, but Chris Meledandri told Variety in April 2023 that he's hoping to make sure this new Shrek movie will have everything fans of all four films have come to love.

"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 honor 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," he said. Meledandri also announced that Dreamworks had begun negotiations with the film's original voice cast, and expressed his interest in launching a Donkey (Eddie Murphy)-centric spin-off film.

Murphy and Mike Myers, who voice Donkey and Shrek, respectively, have both expressed their enthusiasm for their roles and declared that they wouldn't mind coming back to Far, Far Away. "I would do a Donkey movie. I would do another 'Shrek' in two seconds," Murphy told ETalk in 2023. "I loved playing Shrek," Myers concurred to GQ Magazine in 2022. "If I had to do one Shrek a year, I'd be thrilled." It remains to be seen if Myers will get his wish, but it looks like the onion-loving ogre is headed for at least one more go-round.