Following Despicable Me 4's successful opening, another film in the Minions spin-off series has been announced.
Illumination and Universal have announced that Minions 3 is on the way and will arrive in June of 2027. The film will be directed by regular Despicable Me and Minions helmer Pierre Coffin and continue the successful franchise that has earned almost $5bn to date.
As shared by The Hollywood Reporter, Minions 3 will be written by Brian Lynch, who wrote film in the series as well as The Secret Life Of Pets, and will be produced by Chris Meldandri and Bill Ryan.
The current film in the series, Despicable Me 4, has already snagged a healthy $230m worldwide from its opening weekend, proving that there’s still an appetite for these characters – even though Minions 3 will mark the seventh film in the series.
That was certainly evident back in 2022, when Minions: The Rise Of Gru sparked a kind of proto-Barbenheimer movement with the film catching fire across social media. Devotees of the series turned up to watch the films in suits and engaged in various kinds of wacky behaviour.
Some cinema operators expressed concern at the time, but such a wave of frenzied enthusiasm would probably be sorely welcome in 2024 where most of this summer’s blockbuster movies have failed to set the world alight. As it stands, we’re certainly lacking that meme culture breakout hit that The Rise Of Gru became in 2022, followed by Barbie and Oppenheimer a year later.
Illumination is going to keep making these films as long as they perform commercially, with the series serving as the studio’s foundation to build other franchises such as last year’s hugely successful The Super Mario Bros Movie and this year’s less successful Migration. We know there’s a sequel to The Super Mario Bros Movie headed our way in 2026 – remember that the animated adventure featuring Nintendo’s loveable Italian plumber was one of only two films to break $1bn at the box office last year, while also earning an estimated $75m from video on demand sales.
Illumination’s slate has a few other sequels lined up too, including a third film in The Secret Life Of Pets series and Sing 3. As yet, these projects don’t have release dates. The studio’s two big movies are now in place for 2026 and 2027, but as it stands, no release is yet in place for 2025. We’ll let you know if that changes.
