The Shrek film franchise is arguably one of the most successful animated film franchises to date. The franchise has four films, which released during a period of nine years, from 2001 to 2010. The Shrek franchise was produced by DreamWorks Animation. The franchise also paved way for a spin-off film, titled Puss in Boots, based on a character appearing in the Shrek films. The four Shrek films have a total box office collection of $2.9 billion, making it the second-most successful animated film franchise of all time, only behind the Despicable Me franchise.
After NBCUniversal purchased DreamWorks Animation in 2016, Steve Burke, the president and CEO of NBC, stated plans to revive the franchise with a fifth film.
Shrek 5: What we know so far
The franchise was always planned to have five movies, according to Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-producer of Shrek 2. After the release of Shrek the Third in 2007, he even stated that the fifth film will release in 2013. In an interview in 2014, he said this about a potential fifth Shrek film-
“We like to let them [the characters] have a little bit of time to rest, but I think you can be confident that we’ll have another chapter in the Shrek series. We’re not finished, and more importantly, neither is he.”
After Steve Burke’s plans for the revival of Shrek were announced in 2016, it was reported that the fifth film is slated for release in 2019. Later, in September 2016, Eddie Murphy stated that the script for the film was completed and that it would release either in 2019 or 2020. The story was written by Michael McCullers, and was supposedly a reboot of the franchise. As we all know, this film did not happen since we did not get to see a reinvented Shrek film.
In November 2018, it was reported that Chris Meledandri will serve as executive producer on Shrek 5 and the sequel to the spin-off film Puss in Boots, titled Puss in Boots 2.
As of right now, the IMDB page of the untitled fifth Shrek film states that the film is slated for a 2022 release. The film will probably be a reboot of the franchise.