DreamWorks Animation has confirmed that Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy will reprise their roles in the upcoming installment of the beloved franchise. The movie is scheduled for release on July 1, 2026, marking 16 years since the last film, “Shrek Forever After.”
The studio announced the news on X, with a spokesperson writing, “Not too Far, Far Away… @Shrek 5 is coming to theatres on July 1, 2026 with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz.”
Walt Dohrn, who contributed as a writer and artist on the second and third movies and served as Head of Story on the fourth, will direct the new film. Brad Ableson will join as co-director, and Gina Shay will return as producer alongside Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri.
This announcement comes a month after Eddie Murphy revealed that work had begun on the film and that his character, Donkey, would also be getting a spin-off movie.
Murphy told Collider, “We started doing Shrek four or five months ago. I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year. We’ll finish it up.”
Illumination founder Chris Meledandri first discussed the film last year and expressed optimism about reuniting the original cast.
The film producer told Variety, “We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return.”
Meledandri, who has worked on “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” explained that a similar creative process would be applied to the return of “Shrek.”
He said, “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.”
