Fresh off the worldwide blockbuster success of summer 2024's Despicable Me 4, Illumination is expanding its animated universe with a riotous new chapter, featuring all-new characters, in the biggest global animated franchise in history: Minions & Monsters.
This is the rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world and then banded together to try and save the planet from the mayhem they had just created.
A new trailer and poster were released during the Super Bowl (via Toonado.com), and the former hits all the expected notes for a new Minions movie. Still, the visuals are undeniably dazzling, and the movie should be a lot of fun for animation fans of all ages.
Minions & Monsters is directed by Academy Award nominee Pierre Coffin, a director of the first three Despicable Me films and the first Minions film. Coffin has also provided the voice for the Minions since their film debut in 2010.
The film is written by Brian Lynch (Minions, The Secret Life of Pets films) and Pierre Coffin and is produced by Illumination's Academy Award-nominated founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and by Bill Ryan (executive producer, The Super Mario Bros. Movie). The executive producer is Brian Lynch.
More than ten years after their creation, the Minions have become the most iconic animated characters of their generation. Globally recognised and beloved by fans of all ages, they have propelled Illumination's Despicable Me and Minions to a global box office of more than $5.6 billion.
Renaud has previously addressed the franchise's future after Despicable Me 4 wrapped up with what felt like a farewell to the Minions:
"Look, I can only speak for myself and I was a big part of pushing that scene and how it came together and, for me, yes. And what I mean is, listen, I know that Despicable Me 4 in the theater is doing so well. They’ve already got Minions 3. But I thought it was an interesting opportunity given the 15 — heck, 16 or 17 years for me personally working on it, to bring some of the characters across the 'universe' together for this great moment. And sort of have it as a fun reunion/crossover. Actually you just saw it in Deadpool & Wolverine. It’s something that’s out there in the language. And so I think that, for me, I will admit that I thought of it that way while also fully understanding that it probably wouldn’t be."
"But I think what I would say to that is that’s what’s interesting about these characters. The best example is Batman, one of my favorite characters of all time. Even a guy like Matt Reeves very recently. they reinvent and reinvent and reinvent. I mean, so there’s always an opportunity to do that. So even though Chris Nolan’s Batman ended, well, hey, another filmmaker comes along and says, 'I got an idea.' And I think that the fun about these kinds of worlds is that there’s always an opportunity for these characters to live again, just by their nature. They’re animated, they’re drawings. For me, that was in my head as we were doing it. I also completely understood that wasn’t the reality of the situation particularly."
Minions & Monsters arrives in theaters on July 1.