FILM · 2026 · USA
Minions & Monsters
- Directed by
- Pierre Coffin
- Runtime
- 90 min
- Studio
- Universal Pictures, Illumination
33 archived facts 5 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Sep 2026
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.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (33)
- #001
The concept for Minions & Monsters originated with producer Chris Meledandri, who wanted to explore a film in which the Minions make a movie with monsters before unleashing them into the world.
- #002
The film was directed by Pierre Coffin, who wrote the screenplay together with Brian Lynch.
- #003
Meledandri pitched the idea to veteran director Pierre Coffin, who liked it even though he had not intended to direct another film in the franchise after Despicable Me 3.
- #004
The production is the seventh film in the Despicable Me series and the third installment to explore the period before Minions.
- #005
Coffin, drawing on his love of old cinema, chose to set Minions & Monsters in the early days of Hollywood.
- #006
The score was composed by John Powell, marking his third collaboration with Illumination after The Lorax and Migration and the first time a Despicable Me film in the series was scored by Powell rather than Heitor Pereira.
- #007
The film was crafted so the studio could return to its original roots after Migration (2023) and pursue a new cinematic direction through a French tradition.
- #008
Alongside Pierre Coffin, the voice cast includes Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan and Phil LaMarr.
- #009
The film is set in 1927, during the transition from silent cinema to sound cinema, and takes place 41 years before the events of Minions (2015).
- #010
Brian Lynch was announced to write the script for the third Minions film, with Chris Meledandri producing alongside Bill Ryan.
- #011
The production was announced in July 2024 following the release of Despicable Me 4, with Chris Meledandri and Bill Ryan serving as producers.
- #012
Its world premiere was held on 21 June 2026 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
- #013
Patrick Delage served as co-director alongside Pierre Coffin on the third Minions film, after working with him on the Pat & Stan film The Treasure of Pit and Mortimer and the "Fraternité" segment featuring the Minions for the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony.
- #014
The film grossed 520 million dollars worldwide, making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 2026.
- #015
Minions & Monsters was announced during Super Bowl LX.
- #016
It was released in Turkey on 2 July 2026 and in the United States on 1 July 2026, distributed by Universal Pictures.
- #017
Minions & Monsters shares its title with a 2021 short that aired on NBC on June 11, 2021 and appeared on the DVD release of Minions: The Rise of Gru on September 6, 2022.
- #018
Minions & Monsters had an estimated budget of $85 million.
- #019
In March 2026, Trey Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Bobby Moynihan, Phil LaMarr and Allison Janney were announced as cast members of Minions & Monsters.
- #020
Trey Parker had earlier voiced Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me 3, while Allison Janney had voiced Madge Nelson in the first Minions film.
- #021
George Lucas was revealed in June 2026 to have a role in Minions & Monsters, having been approached by Chris Meledandri because Lucas was an admitted fan of the Despicable Me franchise.
- #022
According to director Pierre Coffin, the collaboration with George Lucas came together quickly after producer Chris Renaud texted Lucas's wife directly, and Lucas recorded his brief 15-minute cameo during a studio visit in France.
- #023
The monsters in Minions & Monsters were designed by character designer François Launet, drawing on heavy inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft and the drawings in the warlock's spell book. Launet had previously worked as a SFX supervisor at Mac Guff before its animation unit was bought by Illumination in 2011.
- #024
Trey Parker's character in Minions & Monsters is named Goomi, taken from the nickname of character designer François Launet and used as a Japanese word for 'garbage' rather than his full name.
- #025
Animation for Minions & Monsters was provided by Illumination Studios Paris.
- #026
John Powell was announced in April 2026 as the composer of Minions & Monsters, his third collaboration with Illumination after The Lorax (2012) and Migration (2023).
- #027
Minions & Monsters is the first Despicable Me installment whose score is not by recurring composer Heitor Pereira.
- #028
Pierre Coffin contacted John Powell, who traveled to Illumination's Paris office to meet Coffin and view the film; Powell stayed in Paris a week to write musical cues, which Coffin approved.
- #029
By April 2026, John Powell had recorded the Minions & Monsters score at the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in California.
- #030
Composer Powell described his score for Minions & Monsters as deliberately "indulgent" and unlike what he would write for a serious film, calling the music overly emotional, overwrought, overplayed and overwritten.
- #031
Several musical cues in Minions & Monsters echoed Hollywood's Golden Age, drawing on scores by Carl Stalling, Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman and Max Steiner.
- #032
Many staff players in the orchestra for Minions & Monsters had previously worked on the animated television series Freakazoid! and Animaniacs.
- #033
A visual gag in early promotional trailers for Minions & Monsters, in which a red clown nose fell suggestively between a clown Minion's legs, was changed for the final theatrical release. Executive producer Chris Renaud asked for the scene to be altered to avoid a possible backlash from parents, and Pierre Coffin reanimated it so the nose bounced back into the character's face.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Wikipedia (EN)
- Wikipedia Minions & Monsters — Wikipedia
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