Exclusive: Shrek TV Series In Development
According to the Giant Freakin Robot sources, a Shrek series is currently in development and could be coming to streaming soon.
This article is more than 2 years old
It’s starting to feel like forever since we’ve had the big, green galoot in our lives, but that could be set to change soon. In this day and age of streamers and studios going back to old faithfuls for more and more content, it only makes sense that we would see popular characters get worked into new productions. And that’s what is going to happen with Shrek sooner than later. The latest Giant Freakin Robot exclusive from our trusted and proven source has it that a Shrek series is currently in development and will heading to streaming on Peacock. It looks like the curmudgeonly ogre and all of his fairy tale pals are coming to the small screen.
We don’t have specific details around how this Shrek series will necessarily play out, though it’s not too difficult to do some guesswork along those lines. The Shrek movies, up until this point, have mostly revolved around fish-out-water scenarios for our favorite ogre who’s mostly just longed to live in his swamp in relative solitude. If he can have Princess Fiona by his side and maybe get free of Donkey for a bit, all the better. A Shrek series would completely work because of the franchise’s baseline around already established folks in an offshoot fairy tale world. It’s been hilarious because it highlights some of the more ridiculous characteristics of time-honored characters. The model has totally worked on the big screen and there have been enough movies and specials to show that the audience appetite is more than there for this franchise.
And considering that DreamWorks animation is owned by NBCUniversal, it’s almost surprising that we haven’t seen a Shrek series before now. Though Peacock is in its relative infancy when it comes to streaming platforms, the ability to adapt this kind of time-honored and brand-developed IP is a huge win. It stands to reason we will see more of their movie catalog developed into stories over the upcoming years. The studio has had a fruitful partnership with Netflix up until this point with the Trolls, Dragons, Kung Fu Panda, Trollhunters, and Croods franchises landing there in recent years. But that is set to shift to Hulu and Peacock with other series around Abominable and Megamind in the works in addition to others. This Shrek series is now set to join the list as well.
The last feature film in the Shrek franchise came all the way back in 2010 with Shrek Forever After. While it didn’t perform to the same critical heights as the first two movies (88% and 89% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes), fans still turned out in droves to see it in theaters. It made more than $750 million at the box office worldwide. That put the franchise at over $3.5 billion dollars in ticket sales through the first four films. It’s tough to argue with those kinds of results and it’s easy to see why we are getting a Shrek series.
At this point, it’s unclear if we would see the same voice talent return for the Shrek series, though I would venture to say that considering the star power the movie brought, there might be some cost-saving moves to replace those folks. Mike Myers took on the role of the titular ogre with Eddie Murphy (Donkey), Cameron Diaz (Fiona but basically retired), Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots), and many, many others showing up at some point in the franchise. In all, this is an exciting piece of news around the Shrek series and it is almost sure to be a hit for the streamer.
