Shrek 5 might reunite the original cast, says Illumination CEO
The CEO of Illumination really wants to make scream 5 to happen.
Sit with Variety prior to the premiere of The Super Mario Bros. movie, Chris Meledandri was excited about rebooting the Shrek franchise. This is something that has been teased before, most recently in 2018 when Shrek and the Shrek franchise were handed over to Illumination. This time around, Meledandri expressed a desire to reunite the original cast of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy – also saying negotiations have started and are going well.
“It’s not that different from the process we went through with ‘Mario,’ where you look at what are the core elements that the audience loves, and you go out of your way to honor those core elements,” Meledandri said. “And then you’re hard at work building story elements and new characters that take you to whole new places. The original cast is a big part of that.”
While previous Shrek sequels and reboots have been floating around the rumor mill, none of them have materialized. But the success of 2022 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish might have sparked a desire to revisit the franchise. Last January, Eddie Murphy expressed a desire to return to the role of Donkey in a spin-off or in a sequel, saying, “I like Puss, but he’s not as funny as the Donkey.”
There are no concrete plans for a spin-off from Donkey, as there are plans scream 5but Meledandri believes it could happen, “Without a doubt.”
Next to future Secret Life of Pets and Sing movies, Meledandri talked about a new original movie called Migration. The upcoming title follows a family of ducks and is directed by Ernest and Celestineby Benjamin Renner. Meledandri says the film has a painterly quality to it – very different from the typical in-house Illumination style. A trailer for this movie will be released soon The Super Mario Bros. movie.
“It represents Illumination’s continued commitment to original storytelling, which I think is absolutely essential to culture,” Meledandri said.