A fifth Shrek movie is now in early development, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri has revealed, with the project looking to bring back the original cast including Mike Myers as Shrek, Eddie Murphy as Donkey, and Cameron Diaz as Fiona. Speaking with Variety, Meledandri is eager to bring the cast back for Shrek 5, and giving audiences "the core elements” that they love.

“It’s not that dissimilar to the process that we went through with ‘Mario,’ where you look at what the core elements are that audiences have loved, and you do your very best to honor those core elements. And then you’re hard at work to build story elements and new characters that take you to brand new places. The original cast is a huge part of that.”

Currently, no deals are in place regarding the casts return, but Meledandri did state that negotiations with the respective actors are “going well.”

“We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return.”

Introduced back in 2001 by DreamWorks Animation, Shrek is a bad-tempered but good-hearted ogre voiced by Mike Myers. Living in a world of kings, princesses, knights, and fairy tale creatures, Shrek perfectly parodies the many stories that begin “once upon a time...” while carving out its own identity as a fairy tale for the modern world.

Shrek has been a huge success for Dreamworks since release, spawning several sequels and spinoffs in Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010), Puss in Boots (2011), and last year's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. While word of a fifth Shrek movie has come and gone over the last few years, nothing has ever come of it. Well, it certainly looks like the stop-starts are about to end and audiences are finally going to be reunited with Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey on the big screen once again.

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A Donkey Spinoff is Also Being Planned Alongside Shrek 5

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DreamWorks Animation

Not only is there now a plan for Shrek 5, a spinoff centered on Eddie Murphy’s wise-cracking Donkey is also now in the works. Following on from Murphy saying last year that “They should have done a Donkey movie” after the success of the Puss in Boots series, Meledandri has said that he was “thrilled” when he saw the actor’s comments at the time and that he would make a Donkey standalone story “Without question.”

“It’s evidence of his strong enthusiasm for a role that he so brilliantly inhabited and really created alongside the artists at DreamWorks. I found that comment to be very exciting.”

Discussion of a fifth Shrek outing first began back in 2004, with Walt Disney Studios’ Jeffrey Katzenberg revealing at the time that the Shrek franchise had been outlined into five installments. After much back-and-forth between then and 2017, a script for Shrek 5 was written by Michael McCullers (Austin Powers in Goldmember), who called the sequel "a pretty big reinvention" of the story of Shrek and his pals.

So, while details of Shrek 5 remain under wraps at this time, just knowing that the project is finally edging closer with the original cast being eyed to return should be enough to tide audiences over for now.