# Despicable Me 4

Despicable Me 4 is a 2024 American animated comedy film produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination, and distributed by Universal. The sequel to Despicable Me 3 (2017), it is the fourth main installment and sixth overall entry in the Despicable Me franchise. The film was directed by Chris Renaud, co-directed by Patrick Delage, produced by Chris Meledandri and Brett Hoffman, and written by Mike White and Ken Daurio. It stars the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Stephen Colbert, Sofía Vergara, Steve Coogan, Renaud, Madison Polan, Dana Gaier, Chloe Fineman, and Will Ferrell. The film sees reformed supervillain and secret agent Gru relocate his family to a safe house when his old rival Maxime Le Mal seeks revenge. Subplots deal with Gru's family adjusting to their new lives, teenage neighbor Poppy Prescott trying to follow in Gru's villainous footsteps, and a group of Gru's Minions becoming superheroes.
Development on a fourth main Despicable Me film began in September 2017. It was officially confirmed in February 2022, with Renaud, Delage, and White attached as director, co-director, and writer, respectively. Production was underway by June 2022. Most of the main voice cast was announced in January 2024, with Hoffman and Daurio revealed as co-producer and co-writer, respectively. Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams returned from previous installments to compose the score and write original songs and themes, respectively.
Despicable Me 4 debuted at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on June 9, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 3. Despite mixed reviews, the film continued the franchise's streak of box-office successes, grossing $971 million worldwide against a budget of $100 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2024.

## Plot

Undercover Anti-Villain League (AVL) agent Gru attends a class reunion at his former high school Lycée Pas Bon where he reunites with Maxime Le Mal, a former classmate of his who has a feud with Gru for "stealing" his talent show act. During the ceremony, Maxime reveals he has enhanced himself with cockroach body parts, and Gru has him arrested by the AVL. Helped by his girlfriend Valentina, Maxime escapes prison and reveals his new invention, a gun that transforms people into cockroach hybrids, which he plans to use specifically on Gru's infant son Gru Jr., who despises his father.
Days later, Silas Ramsbottom visits the Gru household to inform them that Maxime has escaped and that the AVL will have to relocate the Gru family to a safe house in another town under new identities. Meanwhile, the AVL takes in the Minions. Silas selects five of them to be augmented with superpowers under a new initiative called the Mega Minions. However, the initiative was called off after the group unintentionally caused significant collateral damage in a nearby city.
In their new well-off residential town, Gru and his family meet their new neighbors, the Prescotts, and their teenage daughter Poppy. Poppy, an aspiring villain, recognizes Gru from his former career as a villain and threatens to blow his cover unless he helps her pull a heist to steal Lycée Pas Bon's honey badger mascot Lenny. Gru and Poppy successfully steal Lenny from the school, unaware that Lenny's collar contains a tracker. The school's principal Übelschlecht identifies Gru via security camera footage and contacts Maxime to inform him about Gru's whereabouts using Lenny's collar.
The next day, while Gru and Lucy are away at tennis practice, principal Übelschlecht visits the safe house to interrogate the girls about Gru. Gru and Lucy rush back home after being alerted by Margo and fight Übelschlecht. Lucy also signals the AVL who calls the Mega Minions out of retirement to stop Maxime. In the havoc, however, Gru Jr. leaves the house and is spotted by Maxime and Valentina, who kidnap him.
With the help of Poppy, Gru meets up with Maxime at a nearby building where he reveals he has transformed Gru Jr. into a human-cockroach hybrid and fights him off. Gru's words to his son manage to break Gru Jr. free from his brainwashing and attacks Maxime instead. Maxime falls to the ground after getting punched by Gru, where he is further squashed by the Mega Minions, who arrive in turn.
Gru, his family, and the Minions return to their original home, where Dr. Nefario reverses Gru Jr.'s transformation. Sometime later, Gru visits Maxime in prison to talk and settle their differences. The pair then puts on a performance of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" at an AVL prison for the prisoners, attended by villains from the past.

## Voice cast

* Steve Carell as Gru, a former supervillain turned Anti-Villain League agent who is Margo, Edith, and Agnes' adoptive father, the biological father of Gru Jr., and Lucy's husband, who poses as "Chet Cunningham Sr.", a solar panel salesman.
* Kristen Wiig as Lucy Wilde, an Anti-Villain League agent, Gru's wife and adoptive mother to Margo, Edith, and Agnes, and Gru Jr.'s biological mother, who poses as "Blanche Cunningham", a hairdresser.
* Will Ferrell as Maxime Le Mal, a French-accented, cockroach-themed supervillain who was an old highschool rival of Gru and seeks revenge against him and his family
* Joey King as Poppy Prescott, an aspiring supervillainess who has admired Gru for a long time, Perry and Patsy's daughter and Gru's new neighbor in Mayflower
* Sofía Vergara as Valentina, Maxime's femme fatale girlfriend who owns a pet Maltese dog
* Stephen Colbert as Perry Prescott, Gru's arrogant new neighbor in Mayflower and Poppy's father who owns a line of automobile dealerships
* Chloe Fineman as Patsy Prescott, Poppy's Texan-accented mother
* Miranda Cosgrove as Margo, Gru and Lucy's oldest adopted daughter, who poses as "Bree Cunningham"
* Steve Coogan as Silas Ramsbottom, the previously retired director of the Anti-Villain League
* Pierre Coffin as the Minions, the yellow henchmen of Gru, most of whom later get jobs at the Anti-Villain League as agents and superheroes
* Dana Gaier as Edith, Gru and Lucy's middle adopted daughter, who poses as "Blair Cunningham"
* Madison Polan as Agnes, Gru and Lucy's youngest adopted daughter, who poses as "Britney Cunningham". Polan replaces Nev Scharrel from the third film, who in turn replaced Elsie Fisher from the first two films
* Tara Strong as Gru Jr., Gru and Lucy's biological son, who loves Lucy but sometimes hates and loves Gru, who poses as "Chet Cunningham Jr."
* Chris Renaud as Principal Frau Übelschlecht, the elderly principal of Lycée Pas Bon
Additionally, John DiMaggio, who previously voiced one of the former henchmen of Wild Knuckles in Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) and a Scoutmaster in the Minion Scouts animated short, voices Karl, the angry bus driver who works for the AVL transporting the remaining Minions to their new destination. Laraine Newman voices Melora, a salon customer whose hair was accidentally burned by Lucy and seeks revenge, Brad Ableson voices Sensei O'Sullivan, Agnes and Edith's abusive karate master, and Romesh Ranganathan voices Dr. Nefario, Gru's elderly scientist and assistant. Ranganathan replaces Nefario's long-time voice actor, Russell Brand.
Cameos at the end of the film include several returning villains like Vector, El Macho, and Balthazar Bratt with Jason Segel, Benjamin Bratt, and Trey Parker reprising their roles through archive audio. Silent cameos include Gru's neighbor, Fred McDade, his mother Marlena, and his twin brother Dru, as well as several villains from the previous installments of the franchise including Vector's father Mr. Perkins, Scarlet and Herb Overkill, and the surviving members of the Vicious 6.

## Production
### Development

Development on Despicable Me 4 began in September 2017, with longtime Despicable Me and Illumination writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio writing early drafts of the script. The film was officially confirmed in February 2022, with veteran Despicable Me director Chris Renaud, Patrick Delage, and Mike White attached as director, co-director, and writer, respectively, and a July 3, 2024, release date announced. Production was underway by June 2022, with Steve Carell starting his voice recording after a "couple of sessions". Most of the production was done during the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2024, it was announced that The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) executive producer Brett Hoffman and Daurio had been added as co-producer and co-writer, respectively.

### Writing

White wrote the screenplay of Despicable Me 4 with Daurio, who joined him later in the production. The filmmakers aimed to delve deeper into the film's many aspects to have a "proper balance" in the story, since Minions: The Rise of Gru was delayed in July 2022. Renaud and White had ideas for the narrative including Gru and his family being forced into witness protection and Gru's rogue rival from high school; they were intended to foster a connection with the audience, depending on each subplot focus.
An abandoned Mega Minions idea from Despicable Me 2 (2013) was resurrected for Despicable Me 4. The filmmakers researched initial concepts of the idea, taking inspiration from the Marvel Comics team Fantastic Four and the Pixar film The Incredibles (2004). To make the Mega Minions unique from the majority of media featuring superheroes, Renaud incorporated the Minions' characteristics—including their incompetence—into the Mega Minions.

### Casting

In January 2024, it was announced that Carell, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Pierre Coffin, and Steve Coogan would return to reprise their respective roles as Gru, Lucy Wilde, Margo, Edith, the Minions, and Silas Ramsbottom, while Will Ferrell, Joey King, Sofía Vergara, Stephen Colbert, Chloe Fineman, and Madison Polan (replacing Nev Scharrel who in turn replaced Elsie Fisher) would join the voice cast, respectively voicing Maxime Le Mal, Poppy Prescott, Valentina, Perry Prescott, Patsy Prescott, and Agnes.

### Animation

According to Renaud, some of the characters who appeared in previous films had their character rigs and surfaces updated for this film. Fred McDade, who had not appeared since the second film, was recreated from scratch, as his character model was too old. The sequence where Poppy plays with an arcade machine originally started out as an animation test for the character, but the filmmakers liked the sequence so much that it was added to the final cut of the film.

## Music

In March 2024, Heitor Pereira was announced to be composing the film's score, returning from the previous installments. Pharrell Williams was also confirmed to be returning to co-compose the score with Pereira as well as to write new songs. The original soundtrack was released on June 27, 2024, by Back Lot Music.

## Marketing

The first trailer for the film was released on January 28, 2024, during the 2023–24 NFL playoff championship games. The trailer features the songs "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses and "Maneater" by Hall & Oates, as well as in television showings, "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce. CBR reported that the trailer showcased "the struggles of welcoming in a new member of the Gru family" and included the debut of Will Ferrell's Maxime Le Mal. Screen Rant's Brennan Klein observed that Gru's tumultuous relationship with his son, Gru Jr., contrasted with the good relationship with his adopted daughters. An additional trailer was revealed on February 11 during Super Bowl LVIII, being narrated by Jon Hamm, who previously voiced Herb Overkill in the 2015 spin-off film Minions, and featuring cameos by Ferrell and Steve Carell. Ryan Gajewski of The Hollywood Reporter said the trailer appeared to "tout the benefits of modern technology but feature strange images supposedly generated by AI," enjoying the Renaissance-era-inspired poses of Ferrell and Carell in the trailer. On April 10, at CinemaCon, Universal displayed a clip of Gru and Poppy trying to steal a honey badger. Brennan Kline of Screen Rant appreciated that the clip solidified the "important element" of Gru's domestic family man status in the sequel.
The second trailer was released on May 7, 2024. Writing for TheWrap, Drew Taylor called the trailer "Minions-heavy" and pointed out one of Pharrell Williams' new original songs featured in the trailer. Collider noted the "devastating consequences" of enlisting a small group of Minion volunteers for an experiment that gave them superpowers. Journalist Diego Peralta pointed out a sequence in which one of the super-powered minions destroys a part of their base with laser vision and said that villains Maxime and Valentina "are more dangerous than any threat Gru has faced before."
On June 8, 2024, Illumination released a parody teaser for the film in which Steve Carell announces the Megaverse, a parody of shared universes such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe, by claiming that Illumination would release 100 years' worth of films, television series, and stage productions starring the Mega Minions. Illumination also published a website for the Megaverse. Some of the fake productions noted on the website include Mega Minions: The Tax Write-Off and an untitled Mega Minions spin-off series with a "story to be determined based on rigorous market testing and ad hoc decision-making." The stunt referenced several current Hollywood affairs such as the cancellation of Warner Bros. films like Batgirl, Scoob! Holiday Haunt and Coyote vs. Acme and the failure of the 2022 DCEU film Black Adam, as well as the mixed reception to Disney's live-action remakes of their classic animated films and many of Marvel's recent productions, such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion.

## Release
### Theatrical

Despicable Me 4 debuted at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on June 9, 2024, followed by a premiere on June 13, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The film was released in the United States on July 3.

### Home media

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released Despicable Me 4 for digital download on September 10, 2024, and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on September 24. Physical copies contain behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, recreational activities, an overview of the franchise's adversaries, and two short films—Game Over and Over and Benny's Birthday.
The film was made available to stream on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service on October 31, 2024. As part of their 18-month deal with Netflix, the film is streaming on Peacock for the first four months of the pay-TV window, before moving to Netflix for the next ten beginning on February 28, 2025.

## Reception
### Box office

Despicable Me 4 grossed $361 million in the United States and Canada, and $610 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $971 million.
In the United States and Canada, Despicable Me 4 was projected to gross $100–125 million from 4,030 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. The film made $27 million on its first day and $20.4 million on its second. It went on to debut to $75 million over the traditional three-day weekend, along with a total five-day gross of $122.6 million, topping the box office. The film made $43.6 million the following weekend, remaining in first place. In its third weekend the film made $24.4 million, finishing in second behind newcomer Twisters, and then made $14.6 million in its fourth weekend, finishing in third behind Twisters and Deadpool & Wolverine.
Internationally the film opened in different countries with different dates, with Australia being the earliest country to release it. The film opened big in multiple countries, and in some it settled franchise records, though in many countries that it opened prior to its US release date, the film opened second behind Inside Out 2, slowing its international climb.

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 164 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Fast paced and teeming with slapstick gags, Despicable Me 4 is as overstuffed as a piñata but full of enough candy to give audiences an enjoyable sugar rush." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (same as the first two films), while those surveyed by PostTrak gave the film an 82% positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Variety admitted the film is entertaining but found the plot overcrowded with useless characters: "One thing is absolutely certain: We haven't seen the last of these characters, even if we might prefer that a few of them sit out the next sequel—like the Mega Minions, who aren't nearly as cute as they sound." A similar appraisal can be found in Screen Rant, as well as in The Hollywood Reporter, observing, for example, the underdeveloped role of the villain in the midst of the various plot lines: "Running a brisk 95 minutes, Despicable Me 4 doesn't leave enough time for Maxime to enact his plans in a way that packs an emotional punch." ABC News commented: "Should a review of a 'Despicable Me' movie be a thoughtful analysis or just a list of the funny stuff the Minions do in it? As much as I might believe in the value of film criticism, I kind of suspect that even the finest points of assessment would be dismantled about as fast as a Minion can say 'Bello!'"

### Accolades

Despicable Me 4's theme song "Double Life" received a nomination for Original Song in an Animated Film at the 15th Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Habib Louati won Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production at the 52nd Annie Awards. The film was nominated for Best Animated Film at the 52nd Saturn Awards and Best Movie for Families at the 2025 Movieguide Awards.