The Despicable Me movies have always been a hit with fans and brought in serious box office dollars, but the first film in the franchise to cross the $1 billion mark was actually the spinoff title, Minions, which focused on the little yellow creatures that work as henchman for Despicable Me's Gru.
It looks like the forthcoming sequel to Minions, will bring things around full circle and also act as an origin story for the Steve Carell voiced "bad guy", as, according to Deadline, the movie now has an official title, Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The first Minions movie ended with the yellow freak shows first being introduced to a much younger Gru. Since Minions apparently live to serve bad guys, they decide that Gru is the leader they need. It appears, based strictly on the title, that the new movie will pick up right where the last one left off and watch Gru grow from small time thug to moon stealing supervillain.
It seems the idea here is for the new film to be both a Minions sequel as well as a Despicable Me prequel, though one assumes that this one will be told from the perspective of the Minions.
Based on the title, one assumes Steve Carell will be returning to voice Gru in what will be a significant part, though it's possible he could spend most of the movie in the background and the story will instead focus on what the Minions are doing behind the scenes into order to make Gru a success.
Based on the box office success of the franchise as a whole, and the first Minions movie specifically, it's actually the highest grossing animated film franchise ever, it would seem that there is an audience that is going to be very excited for this new movie.
Beyond the title we know essentially nothing about what the new movie will actually be about. The project was easily green lit following the stellar box office success of the first film, but this is the first real news we've received about it.
Illumination is about to drop another sequel to a popular franchise. The Secret Life of Pets 2 will hit next month. Once that happens, one assumes we'll start to get more info about the Minions sequel as Minions: The Rse of Gru is the animation studio's next project, set for a July 3, 2020 opening. A sequel to Sing is also one the way a year after that.
It's even possible we could see a teaser trailer for the movie in front of Pets 2. With the film being just over a year away there is probably enough work done to put something together to start to get fans excited.
I'd by lying if I said I was one of the people who was excited for Minions: The Rise of Gru. I've never found the franchise to be particularly engaging, but there are certainly those that feel differently and good for them. I'm glad they're happy that we'll be up to our neck in Minions come next July.
