Shrek: Ghost Rider Co-Creator Reveals Wild Early Concept Art

When it comes to the land of comic books, it’s a master class on the art of monsters whenever Mike Ploog enters the conversation. The legendary comic artist was instrumental in helping develop some of Marvel’ most iconic horror characters from Ghost Rider to Man-Thing. He also had a hand in helping bring Shrek to life as evidenced by a new post on the artist’s Facebook page.

Just days after the first test animation for Shrek surfaced online, Ploog shared black-and-white concept art of the movie in question, showing both Shrek and the thief he flings into the air. “SHREK – Early concept art. This part of creating the look of Shrek was a LOT of fun,” Ploog wrote Wednesday afternoon.

Based on the book by William Steig, the original anti-fairy tale grossed nearly $500 million at the global box office in 2001. Shrek 2, released in 2004, was once the highest-grossing animated movie in history and remains the studio’s biggest success with a global haul of $935 million; two more sequels, 2007’s Shrek the Third and 2010’s Shrek Forever After, earned $807 million and $756 million worldwide, respectively.

Who’s all going to be in Shrek 5?

Though little is known about Shrek 5, Illumination boss Chris Meledandri revealed he believes most of the cast will be back to voice their original roles.

“We anticipate the cast coming back,” Meledandri revealed. “Talks are starting now, and every indication that we’ve gotten is there’s tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return.”

“It’s not that dissimilar to the process that we went through with ‘Mario,’ where you look at what the core elements are that audiences have loved, and you do your very best to honor those core elements,” Meledandri explained. “And then you’re hard at work to build story elements and new characters that take you to brand new places. The original cast is a huge part of that.”

The first two films can be streamed on Peacock while Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After, and all the franchise spinoffs, are available wherever movies are sold.