Eddie Murphy Reveals That ‘Shrek 5’ Has Secretly Been in Production for Months

Eddie Murphy is clearly in the “let’s revive popular characters from decades ago” phase of his career. After bringing back King Akeem for Coming 2 America and Axel Foley for the soon-to-be-released Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Murphy just announced that he’s already working on a new project that would see the return of another of his iconic characters. 

No, not Norbit.

According to Murphy, there are more Shrek movies on the way, and he will once again be voicing Shrek’s best buddy/dragon fetishist Donkey. In an interview with Collider, Murphy stated that he’s already begun recording his lines for a fifth Shrek movie, and a Donkey spin-off movie will immediately follow that. Oddly, Murphy said that he’d only recorded his lines for the “first act” of the script, and expects to finish the rest of his part later this year. The finished movie is somehow going to be completed in time for a 2025 release.

Irregular recording schedule aside, this news will likely thrill Shrek fans, who haven’t gotten a new movie starring America’s favorite flatulating ogre since 2010’s Shrek the Fourth — although there have been some nightmare fuel stage musicals and YouTube videos of Shrek-themed weddings to tide them over. 

Murphy’s announcement wasn’t a total shock. Last April, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri confirmed that the studio behind Super Mario Bros. was planning to make another Shrek movie. He also revealed that the plan was to hire the original voice actors. “We anticipate the cast coming back,” Meledandri told Variety. “Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return.”

But in the months since that interview was published, there were no updates or announcements. The only reason we know that another Shrek movie is actually in production is because reporters keep asking Murphy about it during interviews for the new Beverly Hills Cop sequel.

As for the Donkey spin-off, Murphy seems to have willed that into existence himself. During an interview promoting You People last year, Murphy confirmed that he’d happily do another Shrek movie “in two seconds.” He then pointed out that Donkey really should have gotten his own spin-off movie, just as Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots did. 

“Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he ain’t as funny as Donkey,” Murphy told Etalk. “DreamWorks, if y’all want to do it, just call me, I’m ready to do Donkey.” 

Meledandri, whose company is “creative partners” with DreamWorks, said that he was “thrilled” to read Murphy’s comments, which he called “very exciting.”

While we don’t have many details yet, if they do go ahead and make a multimillion dollar Donkey-centric movie, maybe they could allocate a small portion of the budget to helping out the real donkey that inspired the CGI one? 

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).