Shrek is getting rebooted and we all should have seen this coming

The internet’s favorite movie, Shrek, is headed for a reboot. And if we’re lucky, the original cast just might come back to voice the Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey.

Every day, there is something out there to remind us that perhaps, just perhaps, we might be living in the worst timeline. And if this is truly what’s going on, then Illumination Entertainment’s founder, Chris Meledandri, is here to bring us further proof.

Meledandri and Illumination (the team behind Despicable Me and this month’s The Grinch ) now have their eyes set on rebooting Shrek and Puss in Boots, because nothing is sacred anymore. This comes according to Variety, where the studio founder revealed he’s ready to tap back into that classic Shrek nostalgia… that hasn’t even lasted 10 years yet.

The last Shrek movie to be released was Shrek 4, which came out in 2010. But just like with Spider-Man or the Batman movies, this is showing that a reboot in this day and age can happen at any moment. So really, maybe we should have seen this coming.

From the sounds of it, Meledandri wants to keep the feel of the original movies alive when it gets the reboot treatment.

“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,” Meledandri said to Variety. And to add to preserving that nostalgia, it seems like he’s all for having the original cast come back to voice their characters.

“When you look back on those vocal performances, they’re awesome,” he said. “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.”

So if this vision of bringing the original cast of Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz were to come true, the reboot might not be so bad. Despite how cringey some may find the movies now, those three actors are what made the original film so enjoyably unique to begin with. It’d truly be a shame if they were forgotten altogether. At that rate, if they were to come back, the reboot would just feel like another sequel — contrary to what he says his team aims to do.

The thing that would probably be most changed with the new movie is the animation style. Given the style of Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and some of their other movies, the newest Shrek would likely be less realistic looking and more cartoony. That’s not necessarily bad.

It’s just, some people don’t respond well to change. Especially on the internet where Shrek is such a beloved character… well, beloved for memes and maybe less so the actual movie.

So, the heat is on. And we think Meledandri senses that, as he says the bar is high for their project, even though there’s ample opportunity for great new storytelling in the Shrek world. But given the way all of Illumination’s movies have turned out so far, it looks like the reboot will be in safe hands.

It may be a while before the Shrek reboot comes around, but Illumination’s The Grinch is out in theaters this weekend. That should give us a good measure of how well they handle reboots of family favorites before they move on to Shrek.