If you can believe it, we’re inching on it being five years since Universal and Illumination released a new movie starring the Minions and their villain-with-a-soft-side Gru. But have no fear Minion fans, this summer they’ll be back for Minions: The Rise of Gru. Plus, now we know when Despicable Me 4 is hitting theaters.
Universal and Illumination have announced that the fourth Despicable Me movie is going to hit theaters on July 23, 2024. The cast will once again include Steve Carell as Gru, Kristen Wiig as Lucy, Miranda Cosgrove as Margo and Steve Coogan as Fritz. Chris Renaud, who directed the original Despicable Me along with its first sequel, will return to helm.
The last Despicable Me movie from the main film series, Despicable Me 3, was co-directed by Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin and Eric Guillon, and did not completely measure up to the other films. CinemaBlend's Eric Eisenberg gave Despicable Me 3 a one star out of five in his review, which he called “poorly made, tired, insultingly simplistic, and a real solid waste of the talented people who are involved.” However, that didn’t represent moviegoers as a whole, who gave the movie an A- Cinemascore rather than an A on the other two.
At this time, we don’t know the plot of Despicable Me 4 or whether it will be the last in the franchise. Back in 2017, Cosgrove shared with CinemaBlend that she’d like to see one of the three girls take on Gru’s supervillainy in the fourth installment. The animated franchise has certainly proved numerous times how popular it is. Collectively, the franchise has earned $3.7 billion worldwide, with Despicable Me 3 earning $1.03 billion on its own in the summer of 2017.
With Despicable Me 4 over two years away, at least fans of the franchise can look forward to its return in just a few months for Minions: The Rise of Gru. The spinoff sequel was delayed by COVID multiple times. Due to the pandemic, Illumination was forced to temporarily close down its studio in Paris. This led to a year shift in its release date from 2020 to 2021 before it was moved down to this summer, which looks like it will finally stick.
Minions: The Rise of Gru will take its audiences back to Gru’s childhood and track the villain’s origin story to become the world’s greatest supervillain at the age of 12. Steve Carell is reprising his voice role, along with Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Julie Andrews, Russell Brand and Alan Arkin among the voice cast.
Minions: The Rise of Gru will open in theaters during Independence Day weekend on July 1. Check out what other 2022 movie releases are on the way here on CinemaBlend.
