“Shrek” is a popular franchise that was originally started in 2001 by DreamWorks Animation Studios. The last “Shrek” movie that was produced was “Shrek: Forever After” which was released in 2010. This was the same year that the hit franchise became a meme across social media. On Feb. 27, they released a trailer confirming the release of “Shrek 5,” causing backlash over the animation and characters within the fandom.
Memes of “Shrek” throughout the years have consisted of videos containing content related to the movie’s opening song “All-Star” by Smash Mouth, to more unhinged posts like Shrek’s head edited onto a shirtless body. Most people today will be able to recognize him simply because of his ugly, yellow-ish green color.
DreamWorks has never created a fifth movie installation for any of their other series, such as “Kung Fu Panda” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” so “Shrek 5” was out of the question.
That was until a few days ago, when DreamWorks Animation released a trailer for “Shrek 5.” The trailer immediately started with beloved characters such as Shrek and Donkey looking at their version of TikTok. Here, Shrek became horrified at the things that were being done to him. His daughter, now a teenager, appears next to him, also horrified.
Many fans have been spreading theories that the daughter, who is voiced by Zendaya, might be transgender. This was caused by the fact that in “Shrek the Third,” his sons Farkle and Fergus had brown eyes, while his daughter Felicia had blue eyes. In the trailer, Shrek’s daughter has brown eyes, which either suggests that one of his sons transitioned, or that Felicia’s eyes changed color as she grew up.
New Animation
On top of that, there have been a lot of animation changes since. Since this movie will be made 16 years after the last installation, there are bound to be some animation changes. However, these ones make the characters seem less lovable and more because of AI, causing backlash and rumors of DreamWorks using AI in the animation.
Recently, the team of “Sonic the Hedgehog,” a movie which got backlash because of its original animation in the trailer, and ultimately decided to change the final animation, told DreamWorks to “take notes” on March 2.
Whether or not DreamWorks will address these rumors or change their animation is still in the air. However, what is for certain is that “Shrek 5” is real and that it will be coming to theatres on Christmas 2026.
