'Shrek 5' Is Already in Trouble — and the Movie Hasn't Even Come Out Yet
The Shrek 5 trailer dropped and people are furious. Not about the plot. About Fiona.
Fans immediately noticed that Fiona — the ogre queen who spent three movies learning to embrace her true form, green skin and all — appears noticeably slimmer and younger in the new trailer. Meanwhile Shrek, the male lead, was given wrinkles and aged realistically to reflect the passage of time.
One TikTok video pointing this out has racked up nearly 8 million views. "Can anyone tell me why they gave Fiona from Shrek buccal fat removal, a chin transplant, a nose job, an airbrushed collarbone?" the user posted. "The kicker? They aged Shrek. They gave him wrinkles for the passage of time, and they snatch-ified her and made her look younger. This is such an indicator of where we are as a society."
Another video joking that Fiona was "put on Ozempic" pulled in 2 million views and nearly half a million likes. Comments overwhelmingly agreed the frustration was warranted — "it really is that serious," as one user put it.
DreamWorks and Universal Studios have not responded to requests for comment.
Why This Hits Different
It wouldn't sting quite as much if this were any other animated character. But Fiona wasn't just any character. The entire emotional core of the original Shrek franchise was built around rejecting the fairy tale beauty ideal — the princess who was supposed to be beautiful in the conventional sense turning out to be an ogre, and finding love and self-acceptance in exactly that form. It was one of the few mainstream animated properties that genuinely centered a non-conventional body as heroic and loveable rather than comic relief.
Erica Chito Childs, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Hunter College-CUNY, said the backlash makes complete sense in that context. The transformation reflects a "narrowing of what women's bodies are allowed to look like and an erasure of the diversity that once made a character powerful," she told reporters.
"We have watched this happen in real life too, with women celebrities completely transforming their bodies and faces, and body positivity around larger bodies quietly disappearing from mainstream culture," she added.
Melvin Williams, associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University, pointed to the double standard built right into the trailer itself. "It should come as no surprise that Fiona is presented in Shrek 5 as visibly slimmer and youthful, while Shrek, as a fat man, is afforded the gendered privilege of aging and gaining weight."
That parallel is hard to argue with. The film is literally showing two characters who have existed in the same world for the same amount of time — one gets crow's feet and a belly, the other gets cheekbones and a slimmer jawline. The message that sends, intentional or not, is pretty clear.
Could This Be the Point?
There's one theory circulating that gives DreamWorks the benefit of the doubt — that the transformation is deliberate social commentary, not an accident. That showing Fiona visibly altered while Shrek ages naturally is meant to be a critique of exactly what people are reacting to, an in-story reflection of impossible beauty standards playing out in Far Far Away the same way they play out here.
Chito Childs herself floated this possibility. "We can only hope this is actually a critique, that showing Fiona transformed while Shrek ages is meant to highlight just how absurd and unequal those standards really are," she said.
It would be a bold move — and it would fit the franchise's history of satirizing the very tropes it appears to deploy. The original Shrek worked precisely because it seemed to give you a conventional fairy tale and then dismantled it from the inside.
But that reading requires a lot of faith in a studio that has said nothing publicly to clarify the choice. And given that we're living in a cultural moment defined by Ozempic culture, before-and-after celebrity transformations, and a measurable retreat from the body-positive messaging that briefly went mainstream a few years ago — the less generous reading is that DreamWorks simply updated Fiona to match what the market currently signals it wants to see.
One of the most subversive animated characters of the 2000s, quietly smoothed out for 2026.
The movie isn't even out yet.
Curious for more stories that keep you informed and entertained? From the latest headlines to everyday insights, YourLifeBuzz has more to explore. Dive into what’s next.