Universal sets Eddie Murphy's 'Donkey' Shrek spinoff for June 30, 2028

Universal and DreamWorks Animation have turned the spinoff Eddie Murphy kept teasing into a real movie with a real date. Donkey, an origin story for the Shrek franchise's motormouth sidekick, opens in theaters on Friday, June 30, 2028.

Murphy started floating the idea during the press run for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, and last summer he handed ScreenRant the pitch himself: "Donkey's going to have his own movie, own little story with his dragon wife and his kids that are half-dragon and half-donkeys. They've written this funny story." So the half-dragon dronkeys from Shrek 2 are load-bearing canon now. Fine by me.

The people making it

Charlie Bean is directing. He made The Lego Ninjago Movie and the live-action Lady and the Tramp, so he has logged real hours around talking animals. Matt Flynn co-directs, stepping up from story work on The Wild Robot, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and The Bad Guys 2. Rebecca Huntley (Kung Fu Panda 4, The Bad Guys) produces. Those are people who know how to build a DreamWorks comedy, which is the entire job here.

No other cast yet, no footage, no logo treatment. What exists is a date, a director, and a sidekick who has waited 24 years for his own marquee.

Why Universal is doing this

The math explains the timing better than nostalgia does. The two Puss in Boots films grossed about $1 billion together, which is the proof of concept: pull one supporting character out of Shrek, give him a feature, and audiences turn up. Across six movies the Shrek universe has cleared roughly $4 billion, and the original won the first Best Animated Feature Oscar back in 2001. There was never a world where Universal let Donkey sit on the shelf.

The spinoff also slots into a calendar Universal has been shuffling. Shrek 5 goes first, next summer on June 30, 2027, exactly a year ahead of Donkey. Shrek 5 has already moved off an earlier date once, the July slot that Minions & Monsters just walked into. Universal had been holding this 2028 Friday as an untitled Illumination release, so the move is a reshuffle inside its own house, not a grab for new territory.

That date is going to be a fight

June 30, 2028 is not open ground. Warner Bros. has its animated Dynamic Duo parked there, and Paramount is sitting on the same Friday with an untitled Call of Duty tentpole. Three big swings on one late-June weekend does not hold. At least one of them moves, probably two, and a wide-release Shrek spinoff is usually the title other studios clear out for rather than the one that blinks.

For now the pitch is simple, and that is its appeal: the loudest character in a $4 billion franchise finally gets to carry his own picture. Whether the half-donkey dragon babies make the cut is the only real suspense left.