Universal Pictures has earmarked June 30, 2027 as the premiere date for Illumination’s Minions 3 film, which—if past releases are any indication—should be another blockbuster. 

Brian Lynch (Minions and The Secret Life of Pets) is writing the new film’s script for director Pierre Coffin, who also directed the first three Despicable Me pics and the previous two Minions spinoffs (as well as voicing all of the Minions). Illumination’s founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and EP Bill Ryan (The Super Mario Bros. Movie) are on board as executive producers. 

The Minions movies are prequels to the Despicable Me storyline, and they focus on villainous hero Gru’s small yellow sidekicks, who always end up causing comedic trouble as they try to be more evil. The first Minions movie came out in 2015, and Universal released the sequel Minions: The Rise of Gru in 2022. 

Universal and Illumination are riding a box-office high at the moment, with July 3’s Despicable Me 4 having  already earned US$265 million worldwide. The Despicable Me and Minions franchises have cemented themselves as major money-makers, generating around US$5 billion collectively at the global box office. And the retail business behind these big-screen brands is just as lucrative, at US$6 billion in revenue to date.