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You’ve heard of “Zendaya is Meechee.” Now get ready for Zendaya is Shrek’s (maybe) transgender daughter.
After what seems like 86 years, there is finally a teaser — and we really mean a tease, as it’s less than 30 seconds — announcing the cast for the fifth installment of the cinematic experience known as Shrek. In the decidedly meta clip dropped Wednesday, the ongoing memeification of the titular character scrolls on the Magic Mirror à la iPhone, showing us brainrot bangers like “Shrek pout sunglasses,” or “Shrek twerks in leather bodysuit,” before landing on an edit of the ogre with a chiseled six pack. We then see Shrek’s daughter, voiced by none other than Zendaya, reacting in apparent disgust — and the reveal of her character has set the internet ablaze.
Before we get into the transgender of it all, let’s just take a moment to look at Shrek’s daughter played by Zendaya. She’s got a nose ring. She’s got green lipstick on. She has bangs and some kind of inscrutable half-up bun situation. She’s following in the family tradition of exclusively wearing green and brown clothing, but she’s accessorizing with a purple crystal necklace. She is, dare I say, incredibly she/they-coded. They might as well go ahead and make her a barista at Farbucks.
But deeper into speculation, eagle-eyed X users noted one crucial detail. In the seminal film Shrek the Third, viewers were introduced to Shrek and Fiona’s three children — triplets named Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia. The latter, notably, was the only girl, and was the only one of the three to be depicted with blue eyes. Since Zendaya’s character in the trailer is depicted with brown eyes, naturally, Shrek advocates and scholars have come to the conclusion that Zendaya’s Shrek character must be trans.
Though Zendaya is currently billed in IMDB as “Felicia,” X users speculate whether this is a red herring. But either way, the truth is, Shrek has always been, low-key, a trans cultural text.
Last May, to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Shrek 2, Rose Dommu wrote what is perhaps the definitive ode to the trans subtext of everyone’s favorite ogre-centric franchise. As she puts it, “Shrek 2 has a subtext of transness that is barely subtext. To me, it’s just text!” I mean, come on. We see Fiona and Shrek shaving side by side in the very beginning of the movie. There’s the “gender confused wolf.” There’s the villainous tavern run by one of Cinderella’s “ugly stepsisters,” who is a deep-voiced lady named Doris with, well, strong features — and yes, there is a video on YouTube titled “Doris being an iconic girlboss for almost 3 and a half minutes straight
”
And anecdotally, I've seen even the most sardonic trans people get emotional over this movie, with its tale of an outsider who was ostracized and scapegoated for no reason other than the circumstance of his birth. Yeah, you could be a killjoy and argue that it’s fairly common for babies’ eye colors to change between six and nine months of age, including from blue to brown. But where’s the fun in that? And regardless of whether or not the writers and animators ever actually confirm Shrek’s daughter’s trans identity, she’ll always be trans in our hearts.
Shrek 5 will be in theaters Christmas 2026.
You’ve heard of “Zendaya is Meechee.” Now get ready for Zendaya is Shrek’s (maybe) transgender daughter.
After what seems like 86 years, there is finally a teaser — and we really mean a tease, as it’s less than 30 seconds — announcing the cast for the fifth installment of the cinematic experience known as Shrek. In the decidedly meta clip dropped Wednesday, the ongoing memeification of the titular character scrolls on the Magic Mirror à la iPhone, showing us brainrot bangers like “Shrek pout sunglasses,” or “Shrek twerks in leather bodysuit,” before landing on an edit of the ogre with a chiseled six pack. We then see Shrek’s daughter, voiced by none other than Zendaya, reacting in apparent disgust — and the reveal of her character has set the internet ablaze.
Before we get into the transgender of it all, let’s just take a moment to look at Shrek’s daughter played by Zendaya. She’s got a nose ring. She’s got green lipstick on. She has bangs and some kind of inscrutable half-up bun situation. She’s following in the family tradition of exclusively wearing green and brown clothing, but she’s accessorizing with a purple crystal necklace. She is, dare I say, incredibly she/they-coded. They might as well go ahead and make her a barista at Farbucks.
But deeper into speculation, eagle-eyed X users noted one crucial detail. In the seminal film Shrek the Third, viewers were introduced to Shrek and Fiona’s three children — triplets named Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia. The latter, notably, was the only girl, and was the only one of the three to be depicted with blue eyes. Since Zendaya’s character in the trailer is depicted with brown eyes, naturally, Shrek advocates and scholars have come to the conclusion that Zendaya’s Shrek character must be trans.
Though Zendaya is currently billed in IMDB as “Felicia,” X users speculate whether this is a red herring. But either way, the truth is, Shrek has always been, low-key, a trans cultural text.
Last May, to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Shrek 2, Rose Dommu wrote what is perhaps the definitive ode to the trans subtext of everyone’s favorite ogre-centric franchise. As she puts it, “Shrek 2 has a subtext of transness that is barely subtext. To me, it’s just text!” I mean, come on. We see Fiona and Shrek shaving side by side in the very beginning of the movie. There’s the “gender confused wolf.” There’s the villainous tavern run by one of Cinderella’s “ugly stepsisters,” who is a deep-voiced lady named Doris with, well, strong features — and yes, there is a video on YouTube titled “Doris being an iconic girlboss for almost 3 and a half minutes straight
”And anecdotally, I've seen even the most sardonic trans people get emotional over this movie, with its tale of an outsider who was ostracized and scapegoated for no reason other than the circumstance of his birth. Yeah, you could be a killjoy and argue that it’s fairly common for babies’ eye colors to change between six and nine months of age, including from blue to brown. But where’s the fun in that? And regardless of whether or not the writers and animators ever actually confirm Shrek’s daughter’s trans identity, she’ll always be trans in our hearts.
Shrek 5 will be in theaters Christmas 2026.
