Minions & Monsters is a 2026 American animated period comedy film directed by Pierre Coffin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Brian Lynch. Produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination, it is the third installment in the Minions prequel series and the seventh overall installment in the Despicable Me franchise. The film stars Coffin as the Minions, alongside Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan and Phil LaMarr. Taking place in 1927, between silent film and sound film, 41 years before the events of Minions (2015) and 49 years before the events of Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), the film follows a group of Minions as they aim to make a monster movie of their own in Old Hollywood.
The film was announced in July 2024, after the release of Despicable Me 4, with Coffin and Lynch returning to direct and write, respectively, and Chris Meledandri producing alongside Bill Ryan. John Powell composed the score, marking his third collaboration with Illumination following The Lorax (2012) and Migration (2023) and the first Despicable Me installment not to be scored by Heitor Pereira.
Minions & Monsters premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 21, 2026, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 1 by Universal Pictures. The film received positive reviews, with many deeming it to be the best in the franchise since the first film. It was a box office success, grossing $526 million worldwide and becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2026.
Plot
Thousands of years ago, a tribe of Minions, different from the one that would go on to serve Gru, are on a hunt to serve the world's greatest villains. James, an artistic Minion with a passion for storytelling and drawing, quickly develops a close friendship with two others: Henry, a two-eyed minion who enthusiastically supports James, and Ed, a minion who cannot hear and communicates using sign language and becomes close to them. Among the many masters the Minions serve is a Russian warlock who is killed by a Rabbit monster after Henry summons it from his spell book, which Ed then takes along with them and they inadvertently kill their masters in various ways like a cyclops, a mummy, a pirate, a queen, and an emperor.
Eventually, the tribe stumbles across a bank robbery and decides to chase after the robber to become his henchmen. However, the robber is revealed to be an actor, filming a chase scene for a 1927 Bright brothers movie known as the good the bad and the stupids. Though filmmaker Max is furious with the Minions, studio executives Frank and Elwood Bright are enamored by their antics. Max hires the Minions to star in his films and soon become a global phenomenon, appearing in several silent films like barbarians with chainsaws, look behind you and then down, and they came from the stars to hit you with a frying pan-target miami beach, and living a glamorous life of Hollywood stardom.
When sound film is introduced, the Minions are unable to adapt to the new technology due to their incomprehensible language. Resulting cuts and costing the studio millions in failed material, the Minions are fired and forced to rest in an abandoned factory. Not wanting to give up on his passion for storytelling, James comes up with an idea to make his own movie titled Minions & Monsters, where the Minions would fight against giant monsters. The leader of the tribe, Dick, rejects James's idea and leads the rest of the Minions back towards finding a new evil master, but Henry and Ed break away from them to help James make his film a reality. They pitch it to Max, who encourages James to work on the movie, providing him with a film camera. To help James bring his film to fruition, James uses the warlock's old spell book to summon a Cthulhu monster for the movie. In doing so, the trio releases a small, green monster named Gary Orkam Oliver Magma Ichabod "Goomi" the Deceiver who offers to help him find the perfect monsters for his film, leading them to a frozen fortress at the bering sea, where they free sea monsters Howard the kraken and Phillips the piranha under the false pretense of using them as stars in James's movie. In reality, he aims to use them to summon Irene, a large, orange, multi-eyed blob monster, in order to destroy the world and get revenge.
Meanwhile, Dick and the other Minions are hired by Dort, apparently an alien robot on a mission to invade Earth. While beginning his quest for world domination, Dort falls in love with women's rights activist Debbie, enlisting the Minions' help to romantically pursue her. While James and his crew begin production on his movie, Henry overhears Goomi's plan to Howard and Phillips and tries to alert James, but only for the monsters to kidnap him and convince James to use him as a sacrifice in filming the scene where Irene will be summoned. Just as filming begins, Goomi and the monsters conjures Irene, and she begins wreaking havoc, chasing Henry through the streets in the process.
When Dort and the other Minions witness Irene during his date with Debbie, Dort seemingly flees, leaving the Minions to fend for themselves. Irene succeeds in swallowing Henry, and James drives a milk car through her to rescue him. Greg and the Minions try to destroy Irene, but to no avail. As she repairs herself, Dort reappears with Dick and the other Minions in spacecraft, showing his true identity as an alien robot, and they successfully turn Irene into stone. James and Henry cast an undo spell to send Goomi, Howard and Phillips back with the spell book. The public hails the Minions and Dort as heroes. Ed has captured the entire battle on film, allowing the Minions to complete James's movie. Months later, Minions & Monsters debuts in theaters and receives a standing ovation from the audience while Dort starts a family with Debbie.
In a film museum, tour guide Olivia, who tells the story of James and Henry, finishes her story before it is revealed that the entire plot, including the tour, is a film within a film directed by James and Henry. In the mid-credits, the spell book falls into the hands of Gru's Minions and is tested by James, Henry, Kevin, Stuart and Bob, as well as one of Gru's adoptive daughters, Agnes.
Voice cast
Pierre Coffin as the Minions, including: James, a short, one-eyed and blue-eyed Minion who loves to make art and develops a passion for filmmaking Henry, an average height, two-eyed and blue-eyed Minion who is James's lifelong best friend Ed, a tall, wide, and deaf two-eyed Minion who communicates using sign language Dick, a tall, one-eyed Minion who is the bossy leader of the greater Minion tribe Greg, a very short (formally average height), two-eyed Minion who is Dick's second-in-command Allison Janney as Olivia, a tour guide. Janney previously voiced Madge Nelson in the first film. Christoph Waltz as Max, a film director who hires the Minions to star in his movies Jeff Bridges as Frank and Elwood Bright, twin brothers and the bosses of Bright Brothers Pictures Jesse Eisenberg as Dort, an alien robot that the Minions see as their potential boss. He is a parody of and homage to the character Gort from the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Trey Parker as Goomi, a small green Cthulhu-resembling monster whose name is short for "Gary Orkam Oliver Magma Ichabod the Deceiver". Parker previously voiced Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me 3 (2017). Zoey Deutch as Debbie, a strong-willed suffragette and Dort's love interest Phil LaMarr as Howard, a red tentacled kraken monster freed by Goomi at alaska. The character is named in homage to writer H. P. Lovecraft Bobby Moynihan as Phillips, a blue piscine piranha monster freed by Goomi at alaska. The character is named in homage to writer H. P. Lovecraft
Additionally, George Lucas makes a cameo appearance as a fictionalized version of himself while Gru, Dr. Nefario, and Agnes make cameos during the credits with archival recording from Steve Carell, Russell Brand and Madison Polan.
Production Development The concept for the film comes from producer Chris Meledandri, who wanted to explore a film where the Minions make a movie with monsters before unleashing them into the world. Meledandri pitched it to veteran director Pierre Coffin who liked the idea despite not intending to direct another film in the franchise after Despicable Me 3. Inspired by his love for old cinema, Coffin decided to set the film in the early days of Hollywood. The reason upon crafting this film is for the studio to go back to its original roots after working on Migration (2023) to follow in a new cinematic direction through a French tradition.
In July 2024, during the release of Despicable Me 4, a third Minions film was announced with Coffin set to direct and reprise his role as the Minions, Brian Lynch to write the script, and Meledandri to produce alongside Bill Ryan whom is the co-president of production at Illumination Studios Paris since Migration (2023) and co-executive produced The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026). Patrick Delage, who previously worked on Despicable Me 4 with one of the original directors, Chris Renaud, served as a co-director alongside Coffin upon working with him from making the Pat & Stan film, The Treasure of Pit and Mortimer, and the "Fraternité" segment that features the Minions for the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The film was later announced as Minions & Monsters during the Super Bowl LX, sharing the same title as the 2021 short that aired on NBC on June 11, 2021 and on the DVD release of Minions: The Rise of Gru on September 6, 2022. The film had an estimated $85 million budget.
Casting In March 2026, Trey Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Bobby Moynihan, veteran voice actor Phil LaMarr and Allison Janney were announced to star in the film. Parker had previously voiced Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me 3 and Janney had voiced Madge Nelson in the first Minions film. In June 2026, filmmaker George Lucas was revealed to have a role after being approached by Meledandri for a potential involvement due to Lucas being an admitted fan of the Despicable Me franchise. According to director Pierre Coffin, the exact collaboration came together quickly after producer Chris Renaud reached out directly to Lucas's wife via text message. Lucas subsequently recorded his brief 15-minute cameo during a visit to the studio in France.
Animation and design Animation was provided by Illumination Studios Paris. Due to the monsters being heavily inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, along with the drawings from the warlock’s spell book, the designs of them came from one of the character designers, François Launet, who previously worked as a SFX supervisor at Mac Guff before its animation unit was bought by Illumination in 2011. His nickname, "Goomi," was used for Trey Parker’s character as a Japanese word for ‘garbage’ than just his full name. The characters around Goomi, Howard, Phillips and Eyereen were close to his 2003 ongoing webseries "Goomi’s Unspeakable Vault of Doom" as Launet compares the monsters in the film to his own characters such as Cthulhoo (a mirror to Goomi), Nyarly (a mirror to Howard) and Dagoon (a mirror to Phillips).
Music