Good news, Ogre-heads: there are "talks" of a Shrek 5 with the original cast

Move over, Avatar (and its many rumored sequels): another beloved animated franchise may be coming back to town, and if they do they’ll certainly be taking all of the face-paint-loving Millennials with them. (Let’s just cross our fingers that DreamWorks is smart enough to nix the tie-in ketchup this time.)

That’s right, onion-heads: after more than a ten-year absence, Shrek might finally be returning to the swamp–with all of the original cast, no less. In a recent interview with Variety, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri spoke about trying to wrangle the franchise’s original voice actors—including Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy—for a fifth installment.

“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,” he said. There are no deals officially in place as of this writing.

“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,” Meledandri, whose primary studio Illumination is producing the new film, continued. “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.”

If anyone knows the importance of hiring the right voice actor for the job, it’s Meledandri, who, well, may or may not have found that with Chris Pratt for Mario. (Apparently, we’ll believe it when we hear it.) And what would Shrek be without Mike Myers’ randomly Scottish accent? Even the Shrek ravers might boycott.

There’s good news for the rest of the Far Far Away multiverse as well. Following the runaway success of Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, Eddie Murphy himself may have inspired a new sequel starring Shrek’s other furry friend. “If [DreamWorks] ever came with another Shrek, I’d do it in two seconds. I love Donkey. They did Puss in Boots movies. I was like, ‘They should have done a Donkey movie.’ Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he ain’t funny as the Donkey,” he told Etalk back in January.

Nothing has been greenlit yet, but could Donkey hold down a spinoff of his own? “Without question,” according to Meledandri.