People are convinced Zendaya’s Shrek 5 character is trans after watching the trailer

Dreamworks has released the first teaser trailer for Shrek 5, featuring Zendaya as Shrek and Fiona’s daughter – but fans are convinced that everything is not as it seems.

The less-than 30-second trailer have already created lots of debate, with some people unimpressed about the animation style used, while other fans are more focused on their theory that Shrek’s daughter must be trans.

In Shrek the Third, viewers were introduced to Shrek and Fiona’s ogre triplets – a girl named Felicia and two boys named Fergus and Farkle.

Originally though, Felicia had blue eyes while her brothers had brown eyes. Interestingly, Shrek’s (unnamed) daughter in the Shrek 5 trailer has brown eyes too.

So, either there’s some ogre metamorphosis we are unaware of that turns blue eyes brown or the girl in the trailer voiced by Zendaya is actually trans.

One person posted about this theory on X, writing: “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?”

Another said: “Either they gave her brown contacts or that’s actually Shrek’s trans daughter.”

A third said: “Just realised that Shrek’s daughter is trans cuz [sic] the only girl… has blue eyes while the 2 boys have brown eyes.”

“Shrek having a trans daughter was not on my bingo card,” a fourth person quipped.

Pause, 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? pic.twitter.com/GkE7ByVAHX

— Sarky 🐻 Find me on 🟦☁️🦋 (@SarkyFancyBear) February 27, 2025

Many people debunked this theory by saying that “a lot of babies who are born with blue eyes end up with brown eyes as they age”.

This is a confirmed phenomenon, with Burton Kushner, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, saying that “melanin is not fully developed in newborn babies, so the iris is relatively devoid of whatever melanin pigment it will have, and that gives the eye its baby-blue eye colour”.

But, by nine or 12 months, “the iris of a child destined to be brown-eyed has finished producing melanin, which causes the eye to turn brown”.

Others simply attributed the eye colour change to the studio ‘forgetting’ what eye colour Felicia originally had, which is plausible as it’s been 15 years since the last Shrek film was released.

Despite these very rational explanations, some people were undeterred, with one insisting that no matter what the reason is, “Shrek’s trans daughter is canon”. Guess we’ll just have to wait until the film is released to find out.

Shrek 5 is set to come out on 18 December 2026 in the UK.