Minions Monsters (2026)

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 before the events of Minions (2015), 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. The film was a box office success, grossing $493 million worldwide, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2026. Despite this, it is the lowest grossing film in the Despicable Me series.

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, but in many different ways inadvertently kill their masters. James, more artistic with a passion for painting and drawing, quickly develops a close friendship with two others, Henry, a minion who became best friends with James, and Ed, a deaf minion who became close to them. Among the many masters the Minions serve is a Russian warlock, killed by a monster after Henry summoned it from his spellbook, which Ed then takes along with them.

Eventually, the tribe stumble across a bank robbery, and decide to chase after the robber to become his henchmen. However, it is revealed that the robbery is all staged for a Hollywood film production when breaking the train through the streets out of the set. Though filmmaker Max is furious with the Minions, studio executives Frank and Elwood Bright, heads of Bright Brothers Pictures, are enamored by their antics, so Max hires the Minions to star in his films and soon become a global phenomenon, appearing in several silent films and allowing them to live a life of Hollywood stardom.

When sound film is introduced, the Minions are unable to adapt to the new technology due to their incomprehensible language. Costing the studio millions in failed material, the Minions are fired as their stardom crashed to force the tribe into resting in an abandoned factory. Not wanting to give up on his passion, James comes up with an idea by his sketchbook to make his own movie titled Minions & Monsters where the Minions would fight against giant creatures. The leader of the tribe, Dick, rejects James' 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 himself, providing him a film camera before Ed, who overheard Max's advice to them about making their movie, gets the idea to use the warlock's old spellbook to summon a squid monster to use. They end up releasing a smaller monster named Gary Orkam Oliver Magma Ichabod "Goomi" the Deceiver, who agrees with James' idea and offers to help him find the perfect monsters for his film.

Meanwhile, Dick and the other Minions are hired by a futuristic alien robot named Dort, who is determined to invade Earth. Even when Dort's cracks begin to show, Dick believes that he is the one to lead them. While trying to start his conquest for world domination, Dort ends up falling in love with women's rights activist Debbie, enlisting the Minions' help to romantically pursue her. Goomi leads James, Henry, and Ed to a frozen fortress and frees sea monsters Howard and Phillips under the false pretense of using them as stars in James' movie. In reality, he aims to use them to summon Irene (Eyereen), a large, orange, multi-eyed blob monster, in order to destroy the world. Henry overhears this and tries to alert James, but Howard and Phillips kidnap him, using him as a sacrifice in the 'scene' where Irene will be summoned. Just as shooting begins, Irene breaks out by Goomi and begins wreaking havoc.

When Dort and the other Minions witness Irene chasing Henry through the streets, Dort seemingly flees in panic, forcing some of the Minions to fight Irene for themselves. Irene succeeds in swallowing Henry, with James entering her with a milk car to rescue him, while the Minions take over from the military in holding her off and free the boys out of her. At first, they succeed in tearing her apart, but Irene simply reconstructs herself. Just before she consumes them, Dort re-emerges with the other Minions in spacecraft, and they successfully destroy Irene. Henry and James then cast an undo spell to send Goomi, Howard, and Phillips back into where they came from with the spellbook, now freed upon Irene's destruction. The public hails the Minions and Dort as heroes as Ed had captured the entire battle on film, allowing the Minions to complete James' 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, during this, tour guide Olivia, who told her group the story of James and Henry and how they made a significant impact, 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 spellbook falls in the hands of Gru's Minions and is tested by James, Henry, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and one of Gru's adoptive daughters, Agnes.