Puss in Boots: Director Joel Crawford teases the possible return of a certain green ogre in the future

While no major threat to Avatar: The Way of Water‘s manor at the top of the box office, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish still managed to pull in impressive numbers. While it would trail significantly behind James Cameron’s delayed sequel, for counter-programming, it fared very well in second place. Its domestic total would come out to just over $140M. The films have always been a success, so what’s in store for the future? You might say…an All-Star might come back. Although, Eddie Murphy would proudly like to return to the role of Donkey, Shrek, himself is currently an open option to return according to RadioTimes.

Director Joel Crawford discusses the possibility of making a reunion of sorts in the fairytale universe for future films. “It doesn’t depend on me, normally sequels are chosen by the audience. [But] if they go to the movie theatre massively in the way that they are responding to Puss in Boots probably this could lead to the possibility of another movie with Puss.”

The director adds, “Or as the movie indicates towards the end when you see Far Far Away, they are going to visit some old friends at the end of the movie – maybe Shrek is coming back. I don’t know, there are many different possibilities open for these characters to continue, but that doesn’t depend on me. That is something that the audience chooses in a way.”

With the latest entry, part of the arc for Puss in Boots is coming to terms with mortality as he is now down to the last of his nine lives. Antonio Banderas explains that his own health issues inspired the script development, “What really shaped the script and the story was the circumstances in which the whole entire world had to conform – COVID, kids in confinement and you cannot see our friends and all of that. But at the same time, I think it’s also my own personal experience – in 2017, I had my heart scare.

Banderas expounded, “It started as a script that was completely different. The first one we had, probably only 5% of that one made it, so they had been creating as the world was evolving into something and they saw the possibility, in a very courageous way, to actually dare to reflect about life and death in front of an audience that is kids.”