The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis is certainly making a name for himself as of late: after starring in the $461 million comedy smash hit this summer, he has garnered himself a slew of roles (which is unsurprising – he was hilarious in The Hangover), the latest of which is voicing children’s nursery rhyme character, Humpty Dumpty, in the upcoming Shrek spin-off movie, Puss In Boots.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Galifianakis is in talks to voice Humpty Dumpty, and if cast he’ll be joining the voice of Puss In Boots himself, Antonio Banderas, as well as Salma Hayek who’s voicing “Kitty.” The spin-off will be written by Tom Wheeler, and will be a prequel (an origin story, we’ve heard) leading up to the feisty feline’s meeting-up with Shrek and Co. in Shrek 2.

A few months ago we posted about the fact that the upcoming Shrek spin-off movie featuring Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) would be an origin story. We learned that the movie would deal with the early years of the feisty feline, and later we also learned that it would feature new characters (read: no Shrek, no Princess Fiona, no Donkey).

However, thanks to Latino Review, we get word that the above may not be entirely the case. El Guapo from LR got a chance to talk to Banderas at a junket for his new movie, The Other Man, where he asked the actor about how the Puss in Boots movie was going. On top of revealing an apparent new Halloween special featuring the character (which I’ll get to in a sec), Banderas revealed that the spin-off will take place between Shrek 4 and 5.

Recently, Antonio Banderas revealed that the Puss in Boots spin-off to the Shrek franchise would be a fully fledged origin story, telling the tales of the feisty feline right from a young age and, obviously, before we first saw him in Shrek 2. And even though in lieu of that information, the following is quite obvious, this now officially confirms it: Puss in Boots will not feature any of the characters from the Shrek series, other than Puss, that is!

Screen Rant recently reported on Dreamworks Animation’s lineup from 2009-2012, a list which included the likes of a fourth Shrek movie, a third Madagascar and a sequel to Kung Fu Panda. But also amongst the animation line-up – which reads as a whats what of money making franchises – was a Puss in Boots solo movie, which is a spin-off to the Shrek franchise. With the following synopsis, Dreamworks hinted at what form the spin-off movie will take, by saying it’ll deal with the character’s early years:

Dreamworks Animation (aka the poor man’s Pixar) has released their animated movie lineup for the next four years. Unsurprisingly there are further entries into tried and tested (at the box office) series’ such as Shrek and Madagascar, a sequel to the surprisingly good Kung Fu Panda, and a few original projects. They plan to produce one or two sequels and an original project every year, all of which will be produced in digital 3D.