Shrek 5 has set a release date, start your countdown

After years of waiting for news on the title, it has been confirmed that Shrek 5 is officially coming to cinemas on 1 July, 2026.

In the official release date post on X (formerly Twitter), it was also confirmed that we can expect Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz to all return as their respective characters, though the rest of the cast are currently up in the air (it's fairly likely that Antonio Banderas returns as Puss in Boots, however, since his latest appearance as the character was only two years ago in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish).

This isn't the only upcoming Shrek movie, however. A spin-off focused on Eddie Murphy's character, Donkey, is currently in production per an interview with Collider.

Can't wait that long? Deadpool & Wolverine launches this month.

"We started doing Shrek 5 months ago. 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," the Beverly Hills Cop lead said.

Shrek 5 was originally confirmed over two decades ago now, just after the release and subsequent success of Shrek 2. Per a 2004 interview with website Moviehole (archived here through an old IGN post), there was always plans for five movies in the franchise.

"Before the first one was finished we talked about what the whole story of Shrek is, and each of the chapters answer questions about the first movie and gives us an insight," the ex-CEO of animation studio Dreamworks, Jeffrey Katzenberg, said in the interview.

"Shrek 3 and 4 are going to reveal other unanswered questions and, finally, in the last chapter, we will understand how Shrek came to be in that swamp, where we meet him in the first movie. There is a reason he came to be there, but there is another chapter to the story before that."