About

Shrek 5 Character Redesigns refers to controversial updated designs of Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and other characters from the Shrek franchise in the upcoming 2026 film Shrek 5. Revealed in the February 2025 teaser trailer, the updated character designs quickly became a viral subject of discussions, memes and jokes on social media as many expressed their dislike for the redesigns.

Origin

On February 27th, 2025, a teaser trailer for the 2026 animated comedy film Shrek 5, the fifth main installment in the Shrek franchise, premiered on YouTube^[1] and other social media platforms.

The trailer revealed the main cast of the film, as well as introduced the updated character designs for Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and Pinocchio. The teaser (shown below) garnered over 1.2 million views on YouTube and over 17 million views on X^[2] / Twitter in five hours.

Later that day, the X^[3] account @DiscussingFilm posted a still image from the teaser showcasing the updated character designs, receiving over 7.9 million views, 67,000 likes and 2,200 replies in seven hours (shown below).

Spread

In the hours following the February 27th, 2025, trailer release, the updated designs became a viral subject of discourse on social media as people began posting their reactions.

Notably, the updated designs were compared to the original design of Sonic for the 2020 film Sonic the Hedgehog, which was changed following a massive backlash.

For example, several minutes after the premiere of the teaser on February 27th, X^[4] user @THEHORRORGOTH quoted it, writing, "can we bully dreamworks to change the shrek 5 animation like we did to paramount to change sonic’s animation?" The post (shown below) received over 2,100 reposts and 58,000 likes in five hours.

The updated designs have been humorously compared to Buchon Shrek photoshops based on popular Mexican stereotypes. For example, X^[5] user @mancakefort posted a popular Buchon Shrek image on February 27th with the caption, "This is actually just shrek 5 dude." The post received over 6,400 reposts and 77,000 likes in five hours (shown below).

Also on February 27th, 2025, YouTuber Jacksfilms posted a video titled "FRAME-BY-FRAME ANALYSIS OF THE SHREK 5 TEASER" in which he discussed the trailer. The upload accumulated over 68,500 views, 7,900 likes and 1,240 comments in four hours.

Various Examples

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External References