Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation released the first trailer for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the sequel to the 2011 Shrek spinoff.
The trailer sees Puss realizing he's towards the end of his nine lives. As such, he embarks on a quest to find a Wishing Star that will allow him to restore his previous eight lives, but he'll need some help along the way.
The character of Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, debuted in 2004's Shrek 2 and is inspired by the late 1600s Italian fairytale about an anthropomorphic cat. In 2011, the character headlined his own solo film, which took place after the events of Shrek Forever After, and a sequel was being floated as soon as 2012. Banderas was slated to reprise his role as Puss in the then-titled Puss in Boots 2: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves by 2014, with a 2018 release date being targeted.
"It's a different vibe," director Chris Miller said of the original Puss in Boots movie. "The thing that made it easier was really loving that character, and Antonio's persona really dictated so many of the choices that were made. We knew it was going to be an origin story, we knew it was going to be a prequel. We immediately went, 'There would be no Shrek, there would be no Donkey. They will not exist in this movie.' Right away we guarantee he's going to have his own world. It's a different time. It's a little mysterious, we just know it happened before he met them. That was liberating."
In 2018, the planned Puss in Boots sequel became a soft reboot under Despicable Me co-director Chris Meledandri. "While you certainly could make a case for a complete reinvention, I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterizations," he said at the time. "The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it’s not simply yet another film in a series of sequels."
Those reboot plans turned back into sequel plans by 2019, when Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse co-director Bob Persichetti was tapped to helm Puss in Boots 2. He was replaced by Joel Crawford in 2021, a little more than a year after the movie was given the subtitle The Last Wish.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish arrives in theaters Sept. 23. In addition to Banderas, the film stars Salma Hayek, Olivia Colman, Harvey Guillén, Samson Kayo, Wagner Moura, Anthony Mendez, John Mulaney, Florence Pugh, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Ray Winstone.