Welcome back to life in the worst version of history. Somebody once told me the world was going to get a Shrek reboot, and I almost thought it was a prank. But turns out, it was real, and this franchise rebooting will be handled by Chris Meledandri, the creator of the Despicable Me franchise.
According to Variety, both Shrek and Puss in Boots will be getting new movies. There’s no time table as to when these movies will be coming out, but it will be incorporated into Illumination’s film schedule. Before you get too depressed about it, Meledandri is actually looking to reunite the original voice cast for the film.
“When you look back on those vocal performances they’re awesome, and while you certainly could make a case for a complete reinvention, I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterizations,” explains Meledandri in the Variety exclusive. “The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it’s not simply yet another film in a series of sequels.”
If you’re wondering how a creator tied to Illumination Entertainment got the rights to a DreamWorks film, there’s been some merging going on. Comcast bought DreamWorks Animation recently, and Comcast owns Illumination. However, the two animation companies are not set to merge, so the products coming out of both studios will remain separate for the time being.
Still, for many of us, Shrek ties both to our nostalgic childhoods and our very weird memes. How will Meledandri account for the cultural space that the original film already occupies? Will it be the same crude yet kind story we got or are we suddenly going to get the next version of minions? Still, there’s something to be said for good intentions.
