The internet's crashing out over Shrek's redesign in the 'Shrek 5' teaser trailer

'Shrek 5' is in on the joke.
By  on 
a shrek wax figure
Credit: Altan Gocher/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Shrek 5'first teaser trailer was released this week, and quite predictably, it has inspired much internet discourse, from outrage over character design choices to the more typical memes and jokes.

For the not terminally online, Shrek has long inspired memes, everything from the absurd, to the silly, to the NSFW. So when the upcoming movie released its first sneak peek, of course, the memes followed.

Funnily enough, the teaser itself references Shrek memes — notably the giant, dancing Shrek that temporarily took over TikTok. It also revealed that Zendaya was joining the Shrek universe, voicing Fiona and Shrek's daughter in the fifth film.

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To the chagrin of Shrek-heads out there, however, the teaser animation also appeared to show a slight change in how Shrek and Donkey look. It's definitely a change, but to my untrained eye, it doesn't feel egregious. Tell that to the internet, which responded with a true barrage of memes and jokes.

As the internet is known to be, folks online aren't happy. Shrek 5 isn't due for release until Christmas 2026, so they've got plenty of time to rework things should the outrage continue. After all, it worked for Sonic.

Topics Memes

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Tim Marcin

Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, and the occasional hot take. You can find him posting endlessly about Buffalo wings on the website formerly known as Twitter at @timmarcin.


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