What Could Have Been / Shrek

A very early form of Shrek from the Chris Farley version of the film.

Shrek

• The film was originally going to be produced by Steven Spielberg, be hand-drawn (and later on, motion-captured), and star Bill Murray as Shrek and Steve Martin as Donkey. Spielberg did still serve as the executive producer for the film, but went uncredited. Martin was not cast in the movie, but eventually featured in a DreamWorks movie 14 years later, when he was cast in Home (2015) as Captain Smek.
• An early test animation of the film, set to the song I Feel Good, was produced in 1995. Notable differences include Shrek having a different design that more closely resembles how he looked in the original book (which serves as the page image), the characters being animated with motion capture, and the background having a darker, grungier aesthetic to them. Due to high staff turnover, as well as Jeffery Katzenberg hating the results, the film's visuals were heavily reworked into the final style.
  • According to concept artist Ruben Hickman, the directors and other artists clashed for a good while about the visual direction of the film, with the former wanting a more whimsical take in the vein of The Wizard of Oz and the latter wanting a grittier, "grunge" style that Hickman compared to an underground comic. The final film went for a middle ground between the two styles, balancing the attitude of the "grunge" style with the visuals of the Wizard of Oz style.
• The original script had Princess Fiona born an ogre to the late King and Queen of Duloc. They had her locked in the tower under the lie that she was "of such rare beauty" she was kidnapped. They died, and the kingdom was left under the rule of an ambitious regent (implied to be Farquaad). When she "became of age" to ascend to the throne, she escaped the tower and encountered a witch named Bib Fortuna (a reference to the Star Wars character of the same name) - who narrated the entire sequence through her tarot cards. She gave Fiona a potion which would make her beautiful, but Fortuna warned her of the potion's side effect - she would change between her human and ogress form until she found her true love. Later she was whisked away by her dragon guardian and returned to the tower. This storyline was not adapted to keep the story simple, but is mentioned through the "witch" Fiona tells Donkey about.
• The voice of Shrek went through several actors before finally landing on his final voice. The studio's first choice was Nicolas Cage, but he turned the role down, as he felt being cast as a scary ogre would make a bad impression on children. Afterwards, the role went to Chris Farley. Unfortunately, he passed away late into the process, with almost all of his lines for the character fully recorded. The studio initially reached out to Chris's brother and soundalike John Farley to finish the remaining lines, but he was too overwhelmed with grief at the time and turned them down (a decision he later regretted), forcing the producers to recast.
  • Once Mike Myers took over as Shrek, he initially voiced the character with his normal voice, but late into production he decided that a comical Scottish accent would make the character funnier. According to Jeffrey Katzenberg, this came so late into production that a rough cut with all dialog recorded and several sequences fully animated had to be scrapped, and four million dollars had to be added to the film's budget to account for reworking scenes to fit the new voice (though Mike Myers disputes this). In the process, Shrek's personality and motives were adjusted, as Myers wanted to separate his performance from that of his late friend's.
  • Early storyboards of Farley as Shrek show that he was originally a "Well Done, Son" Guy with overprotective parents; he'd recently moved out of his parents' house, and his motivation for rescuing Fiona was that Farquaad would give him his own swamp, allowing him to finally become independent and make his parents proud. Shrek is also more open about his loneliness, admitting that he wants someone to share the swamp with even before he's met Fiona. In the final film, no mention is made of Shrek's parents, and his motivation is simply to take back a swamp that he already owns.
    • The storyboards also appear to show another early Shrek design, this one with significantly more hair on his head and a more muscular physique, but still with the enormous bottom lip of his first design.
• Other voice-related things include:
  • Janeane Garofalo was originally going to voice Fiona, but with the recasting of Shrek's voice actor, Fiona's voice and character were changed so she could contrast with Shrek better.
  • Supposedly, Robin Williams was approached for a role, but because of the bitter falling out he had with Jeffrey Katzenberg after the latter breached Williams's contract stipulations for Aladdin, he refused to work on this or any DreamWorks film.
  • Alan Rickman was originally offered the role of Farquaad, but he turned it down to portray Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series instead.
• Originally, Shrek was driven out of his swamp by Farquaad's guards who burned his house down. The filmmakers thought, although it was dramatic, it wasn't funny (like the scene we got in the finished film).
• An IMAX 3-D version that would have added an alternate ending was also planned to be released in either December 2001 or summer 2002, but was cancelled.
• In the first movie, they wanted the crescent moon on Shrek's outhouse to be the DreamWorks logo moon. But the studio said no.

Shrek 2

• One idea for the second film involved Shrek helping to turn Far Far Away into a democracy, with an election race between Pinocchio and Gingy that was rife with contemporary political satire. Co-director Andrew Adamson reportedly found this draft hilarious, but it was ultimately decided that the film needed more emotional depth, so this was scrapped in favour of the finished story.
• Originally, after first turning human, Shrek was stopped from reaching Fiona by the FFAPD arresting him, but the creators opted for a moment of emotional vulnerability instead (Fairy Godmother convincing him that Fiona is happier with Prince Charming).
• A short gag was cut from the scene of Harold entering the Poison Apple:
  (Bouncer flicks Tinkerbell out of the bar, and she lands on the ground)
  Bouncer: You know the rules! NO FAIRIES ALLOWED! (slams door)
  Tinkerbell: Jerk-off! (sees Harold) Pssst, hey, Jack... (holds up a small bag) ...Wanna buy some pixie dust?
  Harold: Er, no thanks... I've got allergies... (walks inside)
• "Accidentally In Love" by Counting Crows replaced a song recorded by Weezer ^note ("My Best Friend", which Weezer subsequently reworked for their next album, Make Believe) that was deemed not to fit over the honeymoon montage. The song had to be carefully timed over visuals, which were already locked down and couldn't be changed.
• The king was going to be naked for the first half of the movie as a homage to The Emperor's New Clothes, with his privates always covered by a Scenery Censor.
• Prince Charming in early drafts was much more childish and prone to throwing tantrums. Though he's still a naïve Momma's Boy in the final version, his immaturity is heavily toned down.
• The filmmakers intended to show the "Happily Ever After" form of Dragon as a pink pegasus. In the final movie, Dragon doesn't appear until The Stinger since they realized that she would have made breaking Shrek, Donkey, and Puss out of jail and crashing the ball too easy.
• The ending ball was going to be a costume ball, and the king was dressed as the Magic Mirror, which would have reflected the Fairy Godmother's spell rather than the royal armor he wears in the final movie. Also, one idea for the Final Battle involved the Fairy Godmother enchanting food to attack Shrek and company.
• Jennifer Saunders recorded lines as the Fairy Godmother promising to return in case the filmmakers desired to bring her back in any further installments. However, it wasn't the case and the Fairy Godmother was killed off in the film.

Shrek the Third

• The film would originally have looked into Shrek's youth and backstory. This is touched on only briefly in the movie during a scene where Shrek has a heart-to-heart with Arthur regarding their similarly dysfunctional upbringings and fathers, but is otherwise absent in the final product.
• The deleted scenes on the DVD reveal that there would have been an entire subplot where Artie ends up going on a quest for the Holy Grail, with Shrek, Donkey, and Puss coming along. Shrek, wishing to speed up the journey home, disguises Donkey as the Grail's guardian dragon, who then meets the real dragon. This subplot was adapted for the tie-in game.
• Artie's crush Guin was supposed to appear in more scenes, including one showing life at their school and one where Artie tries to woo her from her balcony. In the final cut, she appears for about two seconds when Artie declares that he's always loved her as he leaves the school, her reaction being "Ew."

Shrek Forever After

• Back when the film was first announced, Jeffrey Katzenberg hinted that it was going to be a prequel to the first Shrek, explaining how Shrek arrived at his swamp with some references to Donkey's early life. Cameron Diaz had also asked for the film to have an eco-friendly storyline. It seems that the story of the then planned fifth film was going to be what ultimately became the story for Shrek Forever After.
• According to the May 2007 issue of National Geographic Kids, a Deleted Scene of Shrek the Third was possibly going to be used, in which a talking tree explained that Arthur Pendragon was the next in line for the Far Far Away throne.
• Arthur Pendragon was to return in this film, with Justin Timberlake reprising his role. His scenes were cut, possibly due to Artie's status as an unfavorite character, but there are conflicting accounts if Timberlake turned down the offer to focus on his music career or if he did record those lines, as Timberlake was reportedly spotted driving to the studio to record his part. These were the three scenes Artie was intended to have, though only the first two were fully animated:
  • Before the birthday party, Shrek visits Artie to invite to the party, only for Artie to decline his invitation and banish Shrek, Fiona and the triplets to the Happy Apple to have their party there, as he feels that he's too good to hang out with ogres now.
  • In the alternate universe, Shrek goes to Worcestershire Academy to find Artie, who is no longer the King of Far Far Away and has returned to be the most bullied and unpopular student of the high school. However, Artie doesn't recognize Shrek and runs away from him. During the assembly, Shrek is unable to defend Artie from being hung by his shirt onto the scaffolding because the guard doesn't let him enter into the gym as Shrek fails to remember what Donkey and Puss did to trick the guard. It's possible that this scene was scrapped as Shrek would have taken a long time to get to Worcestershire, taking into account that it took him a day to get there by boat in the previous film.
  • Once Shrek returns to the real world, Artie arrives at the Happy Apple and apologizes for his previous actions, granting permission to all Ogres in the world to live in Far Far Away as citizens instead of neglected monsters.
• David Morrissey, Paul McCartney and Tom Cruise were all tapped to voice Rumpelstiltskin, if rumors are to be believed. At one point, McCartney almost signed on to play the part, but was dropped at the last minute.
• In some of his early designs, Rumpelstilstkin had a design which looked nearly identical to the one he had in the third film and one with a rat tail.
• According to the audio commentary of the DVD release, Brogan's original name would have been "Gnimrahc" (Charming written backwards), as he was meant to be a transformed Prince Charming who had been cursed just like Fiona and who was going to compete against Shrek for Fiona's heart. Although Jon Hamm recorded some lines, director Mike Mitchell decided that Hamm was "so charming and sexy" in the role that it hurt the story.
• Lord Farquaad, the main antagonist of the first film, was also intended to make an appearance as Lord of DuLoc in the alternate universe. John Lithgow was even announced at one point as part of the film's cast, but his inclusion was ultimately dropped and only appears in archival footage from the first film during the credits sequence. The decision to remove Farquaad from the film presumably came very late, as some of the film's DVD cases mention that Farquaad was still alive in the world where Shrek was never born.
• Mongo, the giant gingerbread man from Shrek 2, was supposed to return as well in some capacity, but the studio changed their mind and didn't bring him back.
• The film's original title was Shrek Goes Fourth, but it was changed to Shrek Forever After after Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to make it the franchise's Grand Finale. Nevertheless, since 2016, a fifth Shrek film is in development.
• The film was originally going to include a flashback sequence set back during Shrek's teen years.