Shrek 5’s Reported Storyline Spells Disaster For The Movie

Shrek 5’s recent cast announcement, which confirmed that Zendaya will be involved, got people talking about what the film might deliver when it is released on Christmas 2026. While it’s clear that Shrek 5 will focus on Shrek and Fiona’s family life and their children growing up, very little is known about the movie’s overall plot.

However, the reported storyline direction for Shrek 5 isn’t positive. Dreamworks appears to be taking a significant risk in a quest to provide something fresh for fans. However, considering Shrek’s popularity and history with millions of people worldwide, that decision could be met with significant backlash.

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Shrek 5 Is Reportedly Making A Big Switch With Its Setting

This Is Going To Be A Major Risk

The teaser trailer for Shrek 5 didn’t give anything away as far as the story goes. It provided the release date, Zendaya’s cast news, and the major revelation about the animation change, which left people up in arms. However, according to industry insider MyTimeToShineHello, Shrek 5 is going to see Shrek and Donkey transported to the real world, the human world that everyone lives in. This would obviously split the duo away from the other characters that fans know and love, which feels like an instant mistake as the chemistry between them has been built up over the previous four movies and is ultimately what people want to see take place.

There could be some opportunities for interesting storytelling with Shrek and Donkey in the human world, but this feels like a significant risk because it’s so far removed from what the franchise has been built upon. Audiences expect to see certain things in a Shrek movie, and setting the majority of it within a human environment feels like the opposite of that for most people. It’s a major change for the franchise, and doing that after four movies is a tough decision to make. It proves that Dreamworks is willing to think outside the box, but this has a high chance of falling flat for specific reasons.

The Shrek Franchise Is Known For Being In A Fantasy World

Audiences Want To See Shrek In That Environment

The previous four Shrek movies have been built up in a fantasy world featuring lots of amazing fairytale characters who have all been brought together in one environment. Those movies have pushed an exciting setting where they all live, and at no point are humans thought about or spoken of, and that’s a positive thing. While some animated movies work well in a human environment, like Secret Life of Pets, that isn’t the case for the Shrek universe. People want to see the ogre stomping around his swamp or swarming a castle with a dragon, not walking around a world where humans are on their phones.

This would instantly take the franchise back to the original movie, just in a different setting. In the first Shrek movie, the story starts by showcasing that most of the characters are scared of Shrek due to his size and anger, which feels like the exact story that will be told in Shrek 5. If an ogre starts parading around a human environment, there could easily be a fear factor that would feel like a repetitive storyline.

Shrek Is Leaning Into The Internet Culture

This Is Likely Being Done For Cheap Laughs

The biggest issue with Shrek stepping into the human world is that it feels like Dreamworks will lean into the online culture that has surrounded the franchise in recent years. Shrek has blown up on the internet via YouTube and TikTok, with a strange subculture made up mainly of adults that often puts Shrek into inappropriate scenarios. Some of those moments were highlighted in the trailer, such as the TikTok trend where Shrek is made massive, placed into latex clothing, and then dances over buildings. They’re cheap laughs and are indicative of this moment, which would instantly date Shrek 5 if it were to lean into that. Any movie that features humans in its current setting can end up falling into this trap, which is why Shrek works well as a franchise because the fantasy world is timeless. People don’t want to see Shrek 5 leaning into the internet obsession with him because most of it isn’t family-friendly, and all of it makes him look like a joke.

The fact that Shrek sees some of these trends during the teaser could lead to humans knowing who he is when he arrives in that world. That would be a different approach to humans being scared of him, but then it becomes a fourth-wall-breaking mess that could end up being very silly, very fast. The decision to lean into these types of situations feels extremely cheap and risky, which is why it’s a worrying situation. People don’t want to see Shrek 5 be a quick film just for the sake of it; they want the fantasy animation that has all the heart of the previous four.

Shrek 5

Release Date

December 23, 2026

Director

Conrad Vernon

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  Cameron Diaz

  Princess Fiona (voice)

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  Eddie Murphy

  Donkey (voice)

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  Cody Cameron

  Pinocchio (voice)