Shrek’s sexuality becoming a hot topic wasn’t on our 2025 bingo cards, and yet, here we are. Shrek — yes, that Shrek, the titular green swamp-dwelling ogre of the beloved Dreamworks franchise — has become the subject of gay discourse on the internet.
The bizarre conversation began when pop culture updates account Pop Base shared news about the upcoming animated films Shrek 5 and Ice Age 6, both of which are set to come out in December 2026.
Upon seeing that innocent post, X user @haffeeez shared a major concern of theirs: “We want the same shrek we’ve had since since. We don’t want shrek questioning his sexuality in 2026,” he wrote in a post that’s now amassed 260,000 likes.
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Okay, let’s break down everything ridiculous happening here. First, why did @haffeeez’s mind immediately jump to Shrek’s sexuality after seeing a post about Shrek 5? Are queer people always so top of mind for him (and the 260,000 other people that liked his post)?
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Then there’s the fact that the completely conservative Shrek movie @haffeeez seems to be remembering doesn’t actually exist. The Shrek films have always played around with queer themes, from the cross-dressing Big Bad Wolf to the bartender Doris, whose gender identity has long been a topic of debate for Shrek fans. Are their stories and queerness handled tastefully? Not particularly, no. But to claim that the Shrek has never and would never address queerness in any form just shows an ignorance of the source material. One of its most prominent relationships is between a donkey and a dragon — need we say more?
And finally, what would be so bad about Shrek becoming bisexual — or “bishreksual,” if you will? In reality, the Shrek movies are for kids and would never explore sexuality in such blatant terms. But as long as we’re entertaining the idea, queer folks agree that Shrek coming into his identity would actually make for a fabulous film. Far Far Away must have some pretty amazing gay clubs, after all.
Folks also couldn’t help but notice that despite the Pop Base post mentioning both Shrek 5 and Ice Age 6, @haffeeez only took issue with the former adding queer characters. Could that be because the Ice Age movies have always had an undercover gay romance, in the form of Sid the sloth and Diego the saber-toothed tiger. Now that’s quality queer representation.
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