Wait, is Zendaya playing a trans character in ‘Shrek 5’?
A teaser trailer for Shrek 5 was finally released, and it set the internet abuzz. Some people liked it, some people hated it.
Many complained about the new, slightly “off” designs for the characters, and the questionable quality of the movie’s jokes. An equal amount of people were thrilled to see the return of everyone’s favorite ogre, who’s been absent for a long time now. This time, Shrek is bringing his daughter along on his next adventure! Shrek 5 will feature none other than Zendaya as Shrek’s teenage daughter. Audiences were introduced to Shrek and Fiona’s babies—adorable bundles of green named Felicia, Fergus and Farkle—in the 2007 movie Shrek the Third, and now they’ve grown up.
Fans have been looking hard at the Shrek children since the Shrek 5 teaser and they think they’ve noticed something interesting.
Is Shrek’s daughter transgender?
In Shrek movies, Felicia was the only girl of the Shrek babies, and the only one with blue eyes. In the teaser, the teenage ogre notably has brown eyes. So is this Felicia we’re looking at, or did one of the brown-eyed boy babies grow up to transition into a girl?
That’s certainly what a few people on X/Twitter seem to think. X/Twitteer user Sarky wrote on the platform, “Not to be a Shrek nerd, but I’m sure Felicia is the only girl out of the ogre triplets and she has blue eyes. That means either Fergus or Farkle transitioned, let’s go?”
They added later that the post wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, but people jumped on it as a fun idea. “Anyone who says she’s not trans clearly don’t remember when their main cast changed entire species in Shrek 2 I think a gender equivalent of that potion exists,” another user wrote. Others pointed out that there’s actually already a trans character in the Shrek franchise, albeit one played for laughs: Doris, the bartender at the Poisoned Apple. Wouldn’t it be great if there was another one?
Make no mistake, no one is really taking this theory too seriously. The eye color doesn’t really mean anything, because the eye color of infants actually changes as they get older. As melanin develops, the eyes of a blue-eyed baby can turn brown. But Shrek doesn’t operate on human rules, so maybe Shrek’s daughter took a magic potion to change her eye color… Or maybe the animators just forgot what it was.
Still, it was a fun idea to bounce around the Shrek fandom for a while. In an America where trans rights are constantly under threat thanks to the Trump administration, we need all the trans characters we can get.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
