Shrek Is Heading to a New Streaming Home

The first two films in the Shrek franchise are finally heading to NBC Universal's proprietary Peacock streaming platform. Shrek and Shrek 2 left Netflix, Peacock, and Hulu at various times in recent months. Most recently, they have been available to stream on Amazon's Freevee video platform. Both are being added to Peacock on August 1, where it seems likely they will stay, as more and more of NBC Universal's most popular franchises do.

Earlier this year, Universal Studios closed Shrek 4-D, one of the long-running park attractions tied to the beloved franchise. It's been almost five years since rumors that Despicable Me's Chris Meledandri had been tasked with bringing new life to the franchise, but nothing solid has materialized yet, except a sequel to Puss in Boots, the spinoff starring Antonio Banderas in the titular role.

"When you look back on those vocal performances they're awesome, and while you certainly could make a case for a complete reinvention, I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterizations," Meledandri said at the time. "The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it's not simply yet another film in a series of sequels."

The Puss in Boots sequel has taken a long road to get to the screen – as long as a decade since the first movie came out. In fact, Antonio Banderas felt comfortable enough to talk up that movie (at the time titled Puss in Boots 2: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves) as far back as 2014: 

"We started the new one four days ago. [Puss in Boots] did incredibly well with audiences and critics, all around the world, and the character is going to keep going. With Jeffrey [Katzenberg], whatever he wants. He's one of my favorite producers. This character was born almost 12 years ago. We have had a lot of fun with him, and it seems that audiences do, too. So, we're doing another one."

Banderas' version of Puss in Boots has indeed been gracing the screen since 2004 when he made his onscreen debut in Shrek 2. Puss in Boots was such a breakout hit as a character that DreamWorks brought him back for two more Shrek movies after that, before giving him his first spinoff film. It's all that surprising that the character and his solo franchise got lost in the shuffle; DreamWorks built big new franchises like Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon in the late 2000s, which then took the spotlight for much of the 2010s. At this point, the Puss in Boots movie franchise feels more like vintage nostalgia than anything else.

The trailer for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will be released next Tuesday.