After originally being scheduled for 2013, the supposedly final installment in the Shrek franchise can't seem to catch a break.
For animated movies, delays, creative shake-ups, and cancellations are par for the course. But Shrek 5 – whose tentative release date has now been pushed to 2027 – seems to have it especially rough.
A History Of Postponement
When the first Shrek movie – a scathing satire of Disney's animated fairytales as well as audience's expectations of animation tropes in general – became a cultural phenomenon in the early 2000s, a sequel was sure to follow. And as DreamWorks Animation oversaw the massive success of Shrek 2 in 2004, company CEO Katzenberg confirmed that he intended the reclusive ogre's tale to span a five-film arc.
Initial plans to conclude the saga with Shrek 5 in 2013 were dashed, however, due to diminishing returns of the other releases. Shrek the Third went on to receive scathing reviews and to be despised by fans, which is why the studio decided to reconstruct the fourth entry – 2010's Shrek Forever After – to make it the final chapter in the development of the franchise's iconic characters.
In 2016, DreamWorks Animation was purchased by NBCUniversal, itself part of the multi-billion media conglomerate Comcast. Despite the original writers and creative leads deeming the story of Shrek to have come to a natural end, the IP's new owners decided to start development on a sequel to the fourth film.
Initially reported to be planned for release in 2019 and then 2020, the apparently-finished script seems to have encountered issues in production.
A Response of Doubt
After a return to Shrek's home of Far, Far Away was teased in the mid-credits scene of the Shrek Spin-Off Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in 2023, DreamWorks finally confirmed in 2024 that the original voice cast would be returning for another production, supposedly releasing in 2025. Despite this announcement, many fans feared that the sequel might fail to serve as an actually meaningful continuation of the Shrek franchise.
Those concerns were hardly alleviated by the first-look cast announcement trailer on February 27, 2025, which drew criticism for its new visual style and character designs. The depiction of the Shrek family using a magical mirror in the manner of a smartphone was also seen as emblematic of an unexpected – and unwanted – tonal shift.
Given all this, some fans initially hoped that the numerous delays since then signaled that the studio was taking time to address the complaints raised after the teaser. Realistically, however, conflicts with the release dates of other major films are a more likely explanation. The film’s original release date of July 1, 2026, was abandoned due to its clash with Minions 3, and it was pushed back to December 23, 2026. While DreamWorks has yet to provide an official reason for the currently discussed delay to June 30, 2027, it’s worth noting that the December slot would have put Shrek 5 in direct competition with similarly nostalgia-driven movies like Avengers: Doomsday and Ice Age 6, something which has historically been unkind to box office performance.
But what do you think? Is DreamWorks truly taking the feedback to heart and using the extra time to improve the film? Or is this just another case of Hollywood release-date chess driven by financial strategy? Let us know in the comments below!