Shrek 5 will completely reinvent the series

Shrek 5 is currently in development, in case you had forgotten, and its screenwriter says it’s going to completely reinvent the franchise.

Michael McCullers gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter about his new animated movie, Boss Baby, and answered a few questions about the upcoming Shrek film. McCullers said that going into the film, which will be the first Shrek movie under Universal’s banner, they wanted to change things up. DreamWorks, the studio Shrek films are created in, was sold to Universal last April for close to $4 billion. The team behind the Shrek movies saw that change in ownership as a sign that it was time to reinvent what people knew about Shrek.

“I imagine they’re particularly interested in it stepping up and actually figuring out the future of the franchise in that way on the corporate level,” McCullers said. “Reinvention was sort of called for. There’s been four movies and a lot of material, so the characters are pretty beloved and they’re great characters, but you also have to think of a pretty new take at that point.”

Shrek 5 was confirmed by DreamWorks last July. The last Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After, was released in 2010. It’s unclear if Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy will return for the new film, but they were all a part of the fourth film.

Shrek 5 is slated to be released in 2019.