First 'Despicable Me 3' Trailer Crashes the Party

In just a few short years Illumination Entertainment have become one of the biggest names in animation. The Despicable Me movies were extremely successful, but the billion-dollar haul of Minions really put them into the stratosphere. And with Secret Life Of Pets becoming the third biggest film of the year in the US, they proved there was more to them than those pesky minions.

A few days ahead of their next film Sing hitting cinema screens Stateside, distributor Universal have released the first trailer for their big film of 2017, Despicable Me 3.


Despicable Me 3 sees the return of one-time super-villain turned doting Dad Gru (voiced by Steve Carell). As in the earlier films, the bald ex-baddie will be facing off against another super-villain with nefarious plans. This time it's Balthazar Bratt, a former child star who seems to be permanently stuck in the 1980s.  The really surprising thing is that he is being voiced by South Park's Trey Parker, making a rare foray into something that he has not co-written himself.

Otherwise, this looks very much business as usual, with broad cartoonish humour and some larger than life performances (Kristen Wiig and Steve Coogan can also be heard among the returning cast). Look out for pretty great gag near the end that features Gru accidentally crashing a birthday party.

It's interesting that the first trailer concentrates on Gru- because it means that the minions hardly feature at all. The little yellow troublemakers have managed to steal most of the limelight of this franchise, so perhaps this film will use them more sparingly and allow Gru to be the star of his own film once again. He is meant to be the main character after all.

Despicable Me 3 is directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, and will be released in both the United States and UK on June 30th 2017. Check out the trailer below