Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a 2022 American computer-animated adventure film that is a direct/stand-alone sequel to Puss in Boots (2011), a spin-off of the Shrek franchise and the sixth installment thereof. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is directed by Joel Crawford and co-directed by Januel Mercado from a screenplay by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, based on a story by Swerdlow and the first film's writer Tom Wheeler, with additional screenplay material provided by Etan Cohen. The voice cast includes Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, who reprises their role as the titular character and Kitty Softpaws. The returning cast is joined by Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Anthony Mendez who voice the new characters introduced in this film. The film continues Puss in Boots's (Banderas) journey as he sets to find the mystical Last Wish and restore the eight of his nine lives that he lost while escaping new enemies (Pugh, Mulaney, and Moura) who plan to hunt him down, with the help of his friends (Hayek and Guillén).

Plans for a sequel to Puss in Boots began in November 2012, when Guillermo del Toro shared to take the titular character on an adventure to a "very exotic locale". He also stated a couple of drafts for the screenplay were completed. Work on a sequel was announced in April 2014, according to Banderas. The film's title was announced as Puss in Boots 2: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves in June 2014. In November 2018, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri was confirmed as an executive producer. It was announced that the film would be helmed by Bob Persichetti, the head of story of the first film and one of the three directors of Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), in February 2019. Crawford was later announced as the new director in March 2021, along with Mercado, who was the head of story on the first film. The majority of the new cast members, along with the returning cast, were announced in March 2022. As with DreamWorks' previous film The Bad Guys (2022), the inspiration for the film's animation style came from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, giving it a visual style that resembles storybook illustrations. Rather than utilize the more realistic style introduced in Shrek (2001), the team focused more on a painterly style design, to make the film look like a fairy-tale world by using new technology.