DreamWorksIt’s hard to believe that something as iconic as Shrek was once a risky bet. Its quality was evident when it shook the world of animation 25 years ago, but in an era dominated by Disney and its family-friendly fairy tales, it began as the outlier. That wouldn’t last long: it won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Film, establishing a rivalry between DreamWorks Animation and Disney that persists to this day. It essentially made it cool to poke fun at the latter, and given how untouchable Disney was at the time, that’s a feat in itself. Shrek would go on to spearhead a new school of irreverent, post-ironic storytelling. Its first sequel, Shrek 2, doubled down on the original’s magic, and even though most consider that the peak of the franchise, it was far from the end. The Shrek saga still has some gas in the tank, even after two decades and change — and an insistence that its fourth film, Shrek Forever After, would be “the final chapter.” Like so many recently revived franchises, Shrek and his brood aren’t quite ready to close the book. So in 2027, 17 years after their last adventure, they’ll be back for another, decidedly darker one.Shrek 5 shares some connective tissue with the latest Scary Movie, in that so much time has passed between installments that there’s almost too much new material to satirize. In the 17 years since we had a new Shrek movie (the Puss in Boots movies, excellent as they are, don’t really count here), Disney launched another successful comeback. Frozen, Zootopia, and Encanto were each inescapable at one point, ushering a new generation of kids into the Disney fold, and we can trust that Shrek 5 will take a pitchfork to at least one of these properties. In its latest trailer, Shrek (Mike Myers), his wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz), and their best friend Donkey (Eddie Murphy) travel to the seedy land of Further, Further Away — a dark metropolis where filthy, partially melted snowmen catcall passersby. “You wanna date a snowman?” one creepily asks, in a clear nod to Frozen’s Olaf. That seems to be the least of the clan’s worries: why they’ve traveled to Further, Further Away remains a mystery, but it might have something to do with their now-grown children. Shrek 5 will reintroduce us to Shrek and Fiona’s triplets, Felicia (Zendaya), Fergus (Saturday Night Live alum Marcello Hernandez), and Farkle (Superman’s Skylar Gisondo). Tellingly, only Fergus and Farkle appear in the new trailer, so they might be on a mission to find their sister. Whatever their motive, let’s hope this doesn’t feel like a sequel made for its own sake.Shrek 5 hits theaters in Summer 2027.