In the last five years, movie-goers have seen a sea of the little yellow rascals known as "Minions" hit the big screen, both through two Despicable Me movies and a solo film (which just dropped in theaters earlier this month). One mystery that has persisted about the creatures, however, is why they are all portrayed as male. Well, now the creator of the characters has answered this question, and revealed the very simple truth: he couldn't imagine women being as stupid as the Minions are.
Prior to the release of the Minions movie, The Wrap had the opportunity to interview the film's co-director Pierre Coffin, and it was during their conversation that the filmmaker (who also voices the Minions) revealed why all of the yellow creatures are boys. He explained,
Seeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just couldn’t imagine Minions being girls.
This explains Coffin's approach to the gender decision from a creative standpoint, but the whole subject is still a bit unclear from a biological standpoint. After all, how are there so many Minions and how have they survived as a species for so long if they are all dudes? In the trade piece, it's noted that Coffin has ruled out both reproduction and division as a means of increasing population - though The Wrap notes that there are some fan theories about both cloning and the idea that humans are actually transformed into Minions with a machine called a "Minionizer."
While Pierre Coffin wouldn't reveal the exact biological specifics of the Minions, he did drop some interesting trivia about the origins of the names of the three main characters: Kevin, Stuart and Bob. Believe it or not, a good amount of forethought went into the selection of the names, and their individual characteristics are informed by what they're called (for at least two out of three of them, anyway). The director explained,
Kevin comes from an ancient Greek word (‘Kevinos’) which means leader. Stuart comes from the Latin word ‘Stuartalumni’ which means (loosely translated) ‘the one who slacks.’ As for Bob, it means short. For Robert.
Despite not having any small, yellow female characters, Minions has already making an absolute killing at the box office. Critical reception hasn't been super positive, but the film has already made $624 million worldwide -which is enough to already make it the fourth most successful movie of 2015 (behind only Jurassic World, Furious 7, and The Avengers: Age of Ultron). The movie is also only going into its third weekend here in the United States, so there's plenty more money-making potential ahead for the animated franchise.
Do you think that there should be female Minions, or do you think that the franchise is doing just fine without them?
