Eddie Murphy hints at new chapter for Donkey as 'Shrek 5' recording nears completion
The actor shared the update in a recent interview, revealing that the spin-off will start development in September 2025 and is targeting a 2028 release.
'We're still in the booth, and literally, we're still doing Shrek,' said Murphy, who is reprising his role as the energetic sidekick. 'We start in September on Donkey… 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.'
The Donkey character, voiced by Murphy since the original Shrek in 2001, has remained one of the most iconic figures in the DreamWorks franchise. While Puss in Boots previously received his own spin-off films, this will be Donkey's first solo outing.
Murphy added that the story will centre around Donkey's quirky family life, promising a 'funny story' in the spirit of the original films. The Donkey spin-off will explore his life with Dragon and their unique children, offering a new narrative arc for fans of the franchise.
Before Donkey's solo adventure arrives, Shrek 5 is expected to hit theatres in late 2026, marking a long-awaited return for the beloved series. Voice recording for the fifth instalment is still ongoing.
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"We need legislation: Just as after the car, which replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we need a highway code," Rehlinger said. Worries over technology in the movie industry and whether it will replace the work of humans are not new. AI has been a flashpoint in Hollywood since the labour unrest of 2023, which resulted in new guidelines for the use of the technology. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said this month that the company used generative AI to produce visual effects for the first time on screen in the original series El Eternauta (The Eternaut). It has also tested GenAI to synchronise actors' lip movements with dubbed dialogue to improve the viewing experience, according to three sources familiar with the work. These experiments rely on local voice actors to deliver the lines, rather than use AI to synthetically translate the on-screen performer's voice into another language. 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When intellectual property is no longer protected, no one will produce anything anymore "because they think 'tomorrow it will be stolen from me anyway'," said Cedric Cavatore, a VDS member who has dubbed films and video games including the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII Remake. VDS collaborates with United Voice Artists, a global network of over 20,000 voice actors advocating for ethical AI use and fair contracts. In the United States, Hollywood video game voice and motion capture actors this month signed a new contract with video game studios focused on AI that SAG-AFTRA said represented important progress on protections against the tech. Studios experiment Some studios are already cautiously exploring AI. Eberhard Weckerle, managing director of the Neue Tonfilm Muenchen studio, hopes AI and human dubbing can one day coexist. "The fear is that AI will be used to make something as cheap as possible and then people will say, 'Okay, I'll accept that I'll have poorer quality'. And that would actually be the worst thing that could happen to us," said the sound engineer whose studio worked on the German version of Conclave and is currently dubbing Guy Ritchie's new film. Earlier this year, the German-dubbed version of streaming service Viaplay's Polish crime series Murderesses was removed after criticism from viewers about the monotony of its AI-generated dialogue. The streamer had decided to look into alternative dubbing options due to how prohibitively expensive going through the traditional channels can be in Germany. The hybrid dubbing, created with Israeli startup DeepDub, used a mix of human and AI voices. DeepDub did not respond to an emailed request for comment. "We'll continue offering subtitles and reserve dubbing for select content," said Vanda Rapti, the executive vice president of ViaPlay Group, ViaPlay Select & Content distribution. Despite the disquiet over that series, other potential viewers seem more sanguine. 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Another startup, Flawless AI, bills itself as an ethical AI company that works with local voice actors and uses its technology to match the on-screen actor's lip movements to the different languages. "When AI technologies are used in the right way, they are a silver bullet to change how we can film-make in a new way," co-CEO Scott Mann said.
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Voice actors push back as AI threatens dubbing industry
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Consumer research firm GWI says 43% of viewers in Germany, France, Italy and Britain prefer dubbed content over subtitles. The market is expected to grow to $4.3 billion in 2025, reaching $7.6 billion by 2033, according to Business Research Insights. That growth could also amplify demand for the so-far nascent technology-based solutions, with platforms competing for subscribers and revenue, and seeking to win over advertisers from their rivals by emphasising their increasing reach. But as AI-generated voices become more sophisticated and cost-effective, voice actor industry associations across Europe are calling on the EU to tighten regulations to protect quality, jobs and artists' back catalogues from being used to create future dubbed work. 'We need legislation: Just as after the car, which replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we need a highway code,' Rehlinger said. Worries over technology in the movie industry and whether it will replace the work of humans are not new. AI has been a flashpoint in Hollywood since the labour unrest of 2023, which resulted in new guidelines for the use of the technology. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said this month that the company used generative AI to produce visual effects for the first time on screen in the original series 'El Eternauta (The Eternaut)'. It has also tested GenAI to synchronise actors' lip movements with dubbed dialogue to improve the viewing experience, according to three sources familiar with the work. These experiments rely on local voice actors to deliver the lines, rather than use AI to synthetically translate the on-screen performer's voice into another language. Such a use of AI for dubbing is permitted under the new SAG-AFTRA actors' union contract, which covers voice-over dubbing from foreign languages into English. It also requires that the actor rendering the dubbing service be paid. Netflix declined to comment on its use of AI in dubbing when asked by Reuters. Intellectual property Such test-runs by an industry giant will do little to allay the fears of dubbing actors. In Germany, 12 well-known dubbing actors went viral on TikTok in March, garnering 8.7 million views, for their campaign saying 'Let's protect artistic, not artificial, intelligence'. A petition from the VDS voice actors' association calling on German and EU lawmakers to push AI companies to obtain explicit consent when training the technology on artists' voices and fairly compensate them, as well as transparently label AI-generated content, gained more than 75,500 signatures. When intellectual property is no longer protected, no one will produce anything anymore 'because they think 'tomorrow it will be stolen from me anyway',' said Cedric Cavatore, a VDS member who has dubbed films and video games including the PlayStation game 'Final Fantasy VII Remake'. George Lucas makes Comic-Con debut for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art VDS collaborates with United Voice Artists, a global network of over 20,000 voice actors advocating for ethical AI use and fair contracts. In the United States, Hollywood video game voice and motion capture actors this month signed a new contract with video game studios focused on AI that SAG-AFTRA said represented important progress on protections against the tech. Studios experiment Some studios are already cautiously exploring AI. Eberhard Weckerle, managing director of the Neue Tonfilm Muenchen studio, hopes AI and human dubbing can one day coexist. 'The fear is that AI will be used to make something as cheap as possible and then people will say, 'Okay, I'll accept that I'll have poorer quality'. And that would actually be the worst thing that could happen to us,' said the sound engineer whose studio worked on the German version of 'Conclave' and is currently dubbing Guy Ritchie's new film. 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'When AI technologies are used in the right way, they are a silver bullet to change how we can film-make in a new way,' co-CEO Scott Mann said.
Express Tribune
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Actor-comedians Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson team up for The Pickup, a heist film that sees them sparring as a pair of incompatible armoured truck drivers, reports Reuters. Starring opposite Murphy, 64, was "a bucket list thing" for Davidson, 31, who had admired Murphy's work since he was seven. Unlike their characters, the two had much in common. "Pete comes from SNL. He's a standup comic. We're both from the East Coast," said Murphy. "I love to get into a scene with somebody else that's funny, improvise with them and start playing, I love it." On a routine round of cash pickups, Murphy's Russell and Davidson's Travis get targeted by criminals. Things get personal when Travis discovers that the thieves are led by his one-night-stand from the night before, played by Keke Palmer, and the life of Russell's hot-headed wife, played by Eva Longoria, comes under threat. The duo must pull together to save the day. The script, by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider, served as their blueprint and director Tim Story encouraged them to go off it, the two said. "We would do one as written and then Tim and everyone was like, 'Just go nuts' and we would end up just trying to one-up each other, we were just trying to make each other laugh," said Davidson. "They were improvising constantly and it was really sweet to see. It's so cool because you see two different generations," added Palmer. The generational differences also seeped into the scenes, with the fighting taking its toll on Russell's body. "Usually in these types of movies or my early movies like the 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 48 Hrs., I was the young maverick and now I'm the older guy," said Murphy. The Pickup starts streaming on Prime Video on August 6. As per Variety, Murphy's next big screen project is reprising his role as Donkey in Shrek 5. He's also signed on for a Donkey spin-off, which he'll start filming in September, according to Screenrant.
