DreamWorks Animation recently announced Shrek 5 but has yet to confirm one greatly lucrative and recurring franchise star’s status in the forthcoming installment. It’s been 14 years since the last Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After, and for a while there, a new sequel seemed like a far, far away pipe dream. Over a decade of talk and speculation about a fifth Shrek installment kindled glimmers of hope for the franchise’s expansion until DreamWorks finally removed all doubt with a Shrek 5 announcement and release date. At this time, Shrek 5 is expected to be released on July 1, 2026.

As production gears up, so begins the second string of pressing questions, including what Shrek 5 will be about, how it’ll compare to the previous movies, and most importantly, who will be involved. The franchise’s dynamite history of actors, who’ve brought Shrek’s fairy tale characters to life with iconic voices and personalities, needs to be sustained if Shrek 5 looks to equate to past installments. So far, DreamWorks has confirmed three original stars, but other big names and important characters who could help fashion Shrek 5 into the epic sequel everyone’s been waiting for hang in the balance.

Antonio Banderas Is Not Confirmed To Return As Puss In Boots In Shrek 5

Yet, Other Major Franchise Players Have Been Confirmed

DreamWorks announced Shrek 5 via a nostalgia-filled post on X featuring a green “5” stylized with ogre ears that trumpeted the tune of Smash Mouth’s “All Star.” Along with Shrek 5’s release date, DreamWorks confirmed original actors Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz will reprise their longtime roles as Shrek, Donkey, and Princess Fiona. As to be expected, a fuller list of cast and characters is pending. However, even in light of Shrek 5’s early development stage, Antonio Banderas’ absence from the first batch of confirmed stars feels really unexpected and somewhat unsettling.

Unlike Myers, Murphy, and Diaz, Banderas hasn’t been with the Shrek franchise since the beginning, but he’s been a fan-favorite figure as the voice of Puss in Boots. By appearing in Shrek 2 and beyond, Banderas’ charming feline amassed so much appeal that he warranted the creation of his self-titled spinoff movies, the critical and commercial hits Puss in Boots and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. If Banderas’ transcendent franchise efforts weren’t enough a reason to name him in the initial lot of confirmed castmates, then the anticipation set by Puss in Boots: The Last Wish should have been.

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Set Up Antonio Banderas’ Shrek 5 Return

The Last Wish Was An Essential Step Toward Shrek 5

Released in 2022, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish showed beyond a doubt that the demand for new Shrek universe films remains high. Albeit having the lowest worldwide gross of all the overarching franchise’s films, The Last Wish was the 10th highest-grossing movie of the 2022 worldwide box office (via The Numbers). With no Shrek or Puss in Boots films in the last decade to lean on and through cinema’s most unpredictable era yet, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish still pulled audiences, setting up Shrek 5 with the assurance that the universe’s fanbase was as strong as ever.

Even more, The Last Wish primed audiences with a Shrek 5 tease that’s kept them in a high state of anticipation ever since. At the end of The Last Wish, following Puss in Boots’ epic run-in with Death, who’d come to claim the last of his nine lives, Puss decides to sail “off to find new adventures and to [visit] some old friends.” As his ship cruises toward the Kingdom of Far Away in the final scene, the assumption looms that Banderas will reprise his role in another movie alongside Shrek and Donkey.

Shrek 5 Not Bringing Back Puss In Boots Would Be A Mistake

Puss Is Too Big To Pass Over

If not already evident, Puss in Boots can hold his own outside his companionship with Shrek and Donkey. The success of Shrek’s spinoff series has proven that, even alone, Puss in Boots remains a beloved and marketable character. That said, leaving Puss on the outskirts of Shrek and Donkey’s next big adventure would be a missed opportunity of the greatest scale. Before the Puss in Boots movies, Puss had been Shrek and Donkey’s fiercest ally, using his cunning, swordsmanship, and “cute eyes” to get the upper hand on some of Shrek’s worst villains.

Puss in Boots’ established dynamic among the original Shrek characters had audiences waiting for his next smooth-talking remark or big fight scene in every Shrek movie he appeared in. In the end, Puss in Boots began to feel as integral to the franchise as the rest of its leading characters. Without Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots, Shrek 5 still holds great promise, no doubt, but including him would help to recall some of the best, funniest, and most exhilarating aspects of the previous Shrek movies.

Source: The Numbers