With Disney raiding their back catalog for live-action remakes, one might wonder if the Despicable Me movies could follow suit. However, if the specter of live-action Minions haunts you, we have good news. When asked about the subject in a new interview with Film Hounds, Minions maven Chris Renaud‘s answer was succinct: “God, I hope not.”

Renaud elaborated, noting that the strength of the franchise is its cartoon slapstick, which it can pursue without worrying about physical consequences: “…for me, what defines the world is that it is animated and it allows us to get away with what we get away with. Like locking a Minion in the vending machine, or you know, blowing up Gru when he attacks Vector. These are really cartoon ideas, like what would have been in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I think it just becomes something completely different if you do a live-action version. For me personally, not very appealing.” Renaud, certainly, is the expert; he directed the first, second, and fourth films in the Despicable Me franchise, and voiced the Minions themselves in the first two films.

What Are Minions?

The Minions are the diminutive, Twinkie-shaped, largely unintelligible henchmen of the mad scientist Gru (Steve Carell), who first appeared in the 2010 film Despicable Me. They quickly became the breakout characters of the series, appearing in all the subsequent Despicable Me films and in their own 2015 prequel spinoff, Minions, which itself got its own sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru, in 2022. Despite indications in the first film that Gru created them, the first Minions film revealed that the creatures in fact evolved naturally; they are compelled to serve the most evil entity they can find, although they frequently undermine their master’s evil plans via their incompetence, clumsiness, and stupidity. The Minions have also proved to be eminently marketable, and are available in a variety of collectible forms.

Although a live-action Despicable Me is off the table, the franchise will keep on rolling in animated form. A third Minions movie is set to be released on June 27, 2027, and a fifth Despicable Me isn’t out of the question, either, especially given that the franchise has earned, to date, over $5 billion USD at the global box office.

Despicable Me 4 is now available to rent or own digitally.

via Collider