NBCUniversal is far from giving up on the Shrek franchise, especially after the success of 2022’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
In a recent interview with Collider for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Eddie Murphy—who voices Shrek’s best friend Donkey (who happens to also be a donkey)—shared that he’s already sat down and recorded for a fifth Shrek film, something that had been rumored about but not officially confirmed.
“We started doing Shrek 4 or [Shrek] 5 months ago,” Murphy said. “I did this, I recorded the first act, and we’ll be doing it this year, we’ll finish it up. Shrek is coming out, and Donkey’s gonna have his own movie. We’re gonna do Donkey as well. So we’re gonna do a Shrek, and we’re doing a Donkey [movie].”
The thought of Donkey getting his own movie is a fun one. He’s the classic sidekick—there for laughs and good fun. Given how Puss in Boots was an actually good movie on its own (with Puss, of course, voiced by Antonio Banderas), I’m optimistic that Donkey will be able to do so as well, provided there’s a strong story behind him.
We’ll likely be waiting a while for the spinoff, however, as Murphy said he wouldn’t be recording for that until he was finished with Shrek 5, which he expected to be complete sometime this year. No news yet on when we’ll see Shrek 5 in theaters either.
