Despicable Me 4

Despicable Me 4, an American animated comedy from 2024, was helmed by director Chris Renaud with a script from Mike White and Ken Daurio. Illumination produced it, Universal Pictures distributed it, and it stands as the fourth main film in the Despicable Me series and the sixth overall. The voice cast includes Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Stephen Colbert, Sofía Vergara, and Will Ferrell. The story picks up after the events of Despicable Me 3 (2017). Reformed supervillain and secret agent Gru must temporarily move his family to a safe house when an old rival, Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Ferrell), comes after him for revenge. Meanwhile, the Anti-Villain League (AVL) gives superpowers to a handful of Minions, creating a superhero team called the Mega Minions. Work on a fourth main entry began in September 2017, with official confirmation coming in February 2022. At that point, Renaud was attached as director, Patrick Delage as co-director, and White as writer. Production was in progress by June 2022. Most of the principal voice cast was announced in January 2024, with Brett Hoffman and Daurio revealed as co-producer and co-writer, respectively, alongside Chris Meledandri and White. Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams returned to compose the score and write original songs and themes. The film premiered at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York on June 9, 2024, and hit U.S. theaters on July 3. Despite mixed reviews, it continued the franchise’s box-office success, earning $986.7 million worldwide on a $100 million budget, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2024. Former supervillain and undercover AVL agent Gru attends a class reunion at his old school, Lycée Pas Bon, where he runs into Maxime Le Mal, a former classmate who holds a grudge because he believes Gru stole his talent show act. At the ceremony, Maxime shows he has enhanced himself with cockroach body parts, but Gru has the AVL arrest him. With help from his cockroach minions, Maxime escapes prison, swearing revenge, and unveils a ray gun that turns people into cockroach hybrids—a weapon he plans to use on Gru’s infant son, Gru Jr. Days later, Silas Ramsbottom, now out of retirement, visits the Gru home to warn them that Maxime is on the loose. The AVL moves the family to a safe house in another town under fake identities.