Despicable Me and Minions viewing order (release and chronology)

For those who want to follow Gru and his legion of yellow Minion companions, there are two ways to watch the film. Despicable Me movies in order. The first Despicable Me was positively received by both critics and fans and grossed over US$540 million worldwide. (through Mojo Box Office)generating two direct sequences, the Footman films and several short films, television specials, video games, and even a theme park attraction at various Universal Studios locations. They even received an Oscar nomination, two Golden Globe nominations, and two BAFTA wins.

THE Despicable Me The films follow the story of supervillain-turned-father Felonious Gru, his adopted daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, and his eventual wife, Lucy Wilde. Although the franchise's strange yellow Minions are featured as Gru's loyal henchmen throughout the Despicable Me films, the popularity of the little creatures led to them receiving their own prequel in 2015. Minions became the first entry in the series to gross over $1 billion at the global box office, and Minions: The Rise of Gru beat this. This also opened up two ways to watch the films – in release order and chronologically.

Despicable Me and Minions films in release order

The Minions films divide the four Despicable Me entries

THE Despicable Me viewing order It wasn't laid out in a perfectly straight line, but it's still pretty simple. The first animated film was released in 2010, while the huge rise in popularity of the Minions characters led to the release of Minions prequel between the second and third films of the main trilogy.

Minions: The Rise of Gru followed as a continuation of Minions films, but still took place before the events of Gru's moon assault attempt in Despicable Me. The popular franchise now continues to return to its main franchise with the release of Despicable Me 4. THE Despicable Me The viewing order by release date is as follows:

Despicable Me and Minions movies in chronological order

The Minions films act as prequels

THE Despicable Me The viewing order chronologically is as follows:

Minions (2015)

The first Minions The film in order begins its story in 3.8 billion BC, when the Minions appear as the Earth itself forms. However, the film moves forward to the future where they work for dinosaurs, Egyptian pharaohs, and even vampires. Although wild and unpredictable, Minions are all dedicated henchmen at their core. Kevin, Stuart and Bob try to find a supervillain to serve, and the central plot of Minions takes place in 1968 when they meet Scarlet Overkill and find their next villain next.

Although the story begins at the beginning of time, once the film adapts to the 1968 setting, not much time passes. The story simply focuses on the lovable henchmen's attempt to help their new leader while inadvertently saving the day. However, the film ends with the tease of where the franchise will go from here, such as Kevin, Stuart and Bob meet young Gru.

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

After the brief introduction of young Gru in the previous film, the Minions the story begins in Minions: The Rise of Gru in 1976. The film revolves around 11-year-old Gru as he strives to become a full-fledged supervillain and wants to join the supervillain team Felonious Five. However, when Gru is captured by the team's former leader, Wild Knuckles, it's up to the Minions to save him.

The film explores the early days of Gru's partnership with the Minions, showing that he is not entirely impressed with them as henchmen at first. However, this bond grows stronger throughout the story, which only unfolds in a matter of days. While the film doesn't move forward much in the timeline, it leaves a lot of room if the franchise decides to make another Minions prequel with Gru. The post-credits scene happens a little later with Gru and the Minions hiring Dr. Nefario.

Despicable Me (2010)

Taking place after the events of the prequels Despicable Me jumps the franchise's timeline to the 2010s focusing on Gru now an adult and an established evil genius, still working with the Minions. The film follows Gru's rivalry with his fellow villain, Vector. In an attempt to defeat his rival, Gru's plan involves adopting a trio of orphaned girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes. However, despite everything, Gru begins to form a connection and in the end truly becomes a father to them.

Much like Gru's relationship with the Minions in Minions: The Rise of GruIt doesn't take long for the relationship between Gru and the girls to grow, showing that the character does have a big heart. At the beginning of the film the girls mention their upcoming ballet recital which ends up playing a role in the climax. meaning it occurs over the course of several weeks or a few months at most.

Despicable Me 2

Despicable Me 2 is set in the present daytaking place just a year after the first film and showing how Gru is adapting to his new life as a father. It is shown that, in the short space of time, Gru dedicated himself mainly to fatherhood and left his career as a villain in the past. However, he is pulled back into that world when a spy agency recruits him to stop a new threat. During the mission, he begins to fall in love with secret agent Lucy Wilde and the two get married at the end of the story.

Just like the other films, most of the story takes place in a relatively short period of time with Gru quickly bonding with Lucy during their mission together. However, this does not mean that dating is rushed. The film's epilogue, which takes place at Gru and Lucy's wedding, is revealed that it would occur 147 dates after the mission's completion.

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

The third film in the main franchise, Despicable Me 3takes place about four years after the wedding, however, this is where the film's timeline can get a little confusing, as Gru's daughters don't age in this time period. The film details Gru and Lucy living their exciting lives as secret agents, only to be fired for failing to arrest the dastardly former child star and current supervillain, Balthazar Bratt. This leads Gru to meet his long-lost brother, Dru, who has his own ambitions to be a supervillain.

The film is another fairly simple story in terms of timeline, with the entire film taking place over the course of several days. While there are moments that show Bratt's days as a television star in the 1980s, they are simply seen as clips from the present day, so they do not cause any changes to the timeline.

Despicable Me 4 (2024)

The latest Despicable Me film, Despicable Me 4makes it a little more challenging to determine when this occurs. The film begins with Gru and Lucy, now new parents to their son, Gru Jr. However, even with this baby shown in the early days, their three daughters continue to not age. Simply being Gru Jr.'s age, it's likely that the film takes place one year after the events of Despicable Me 3.

The film finds Gru juggling life with a new boy he can't seem to connect with and his confrontation with a rival from his past. Like the other Despicable Me adventures, the third film covers a short period of time with Gru's battle against Maxime Le Mal. However, the film also features flashbacks to the 1980s when Gru and Maxime were classmates.

How the Minions Timeline Skillfully Avoided WWII and Other Modern Atrocities

They were inactive during the time

It has been confirmed that the Minions exist in the same universe as several dictators and other villains from real-life history, thanks to Minions opening scene - a topic that the Despicable Me the films cleverly avoided. THE Minions The opening scene is fun and entertaining as they manage to poke fun at dictators like Napoleon, but It gets a lot darker when you consider something like the atrocities of World War II.

How the Footman The films that overcome this dark moment in history are making the Minions inactive during World War II and then bringing them into the 21st century to be with Gru. This helps the series avoid the question of who the Minions were working for during this time, as their main goal is chaos and destruction.

Making Minions inactive during this period also eliminates the ethical ramifications of this issue. This is how Despicable Me the franchise was able to avoid addressing complex story issues that would directly or indirectly involve his villainy.

The future of the Despicable Me franchise

With the last entry of Despicable Me arriving in 2024, there are already fans eagerly awaiting news about the direction of the franchise from then on. As has been happening lately, the latest Despicable Me sequel will be followed by a new installment in Minions prequel series. Minions 3 has already been set for releaseand while this will no doubt please fans, they're in for a long wait as it won't arrive until the summer of 2027.

Minions: The Rise of Gru made young Gru a central part of the story, although the Minions still manage to share the spotlight. It will be interesting to see if the third film will continue to include the future world genius in its origin story or if it will return to being a standalone adventure for the Minions.

In terms of Gru returning in his own films, Despicable Me 5 has not yet been announced, but with Despicable Me earning just under $1 billion at the worldwide box office (through Mojo Box Office), it looks like a sequel won't be far behind.

With the continued popularity of the franchise It also wouldn't be surprising if the possibility of other spinoffs could be explored. One interesting direction emerging from the latest entry is a possible spinoff starring Will Ferrell's Maxime Le Mal, the villain from Despicable Me 4. Regardless of what else is to come, the Despicable Me films remain as popular as ever and show no signs of slowing down.

Where to watch the Despicable Me movies

THE Despicable Me The franchise is distributed by Universal Pictures, so it makes sense that most, if not all, of the films would be found on the studio's associated streaming service. Peacock is owned by NBC-Universal. As a result, The peacock is often the home of the Despicable Me and Minions movies, unless another streamer has contracted streaming rights for a month or two.

As of this writing, this means all four Despicable Me movies are available on Peacock. Despicable Me 3however, it is only scheduled to remain on Peacock until the end of November. Despicable Me 4 is a recent addition following its theatrical run and will likely be available to subscribers on the streamer for three months before moving to another platform, as is often the case with new additions.

All four Despicable Me Movies are also available to stream through AppleTV+ and to rent through Prime Video. Despicable Me 4 is available to rent on both platforms. Despicable Me 3 is the only one of the four that is also available to stream on Fubo.

THE Minions the movies, however, are not available on Peacock at this time. Instead of, the first Minions the film is available to stream on Netflix and also to rent on AppleTV and Prime Video. Minions: The Rise of Gru it is currently only available to streamers via AppleTV+ and Prime Video. It's likely that the Minions movies will also move to Peacock at a later date, although that could be when the Despicable Me the films are on another streamer.