Updated

Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 30

Pierre Coffin Returns for 3rd Minions Spinoff, Says 16 Years In He Finally Understands Them

Updated

Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 30

Pierre Coffin Returns for 3rd Minions Spinoff, Says 16 Years In He Finally Understands Them

Q: Why was a 1920s Hollywood setting the key to reviving the Minions' story?

The 1920s Hollywood setting worked because it solved the Minions’ biggest storytelling problem: how to build a movie around characters who mostly speak gibberish. In the silent-film era, their “Minionese” is not a handicap but an advantage, letting them function naturally as visual comedians and true protagonists. The arrival of talkies then creates an organic conflict, giving the film a clear plot engine and a reason for their rise, fall and comeback. It also matched the Minions’ core comic identity. Coffin has said the characters are essentially unruly children, and their humor has always been rooted in physical slapstick. A world inspired by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd gave that comedy a form where movement, chaos and expression matter more than dialogue. That made the characters feel less like side creatures and more like distinct personalities. Just as important, the setting gave Coffin a fresh creative frame after years of frustration with franchise repetition. By turning the film into a love letter to early cinema and moviemaking, the story could explore old Hollywood, monster movies and film history while introducing new Minion characters and a different narrative structure. That helped distinguish “Minions & Monsters” from earlier entries and gave Coffin a concept he felt was genuinely new rather than another extension of the same formula.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 30

Opening Wednesday, “Minions & Monsters” brings Pierre Coffin back to direct the third standalone Minions film after he had stepped away from the franchise following 2017’s “Despicable Me 3.”
Coffin, 59, said writing the new movie led to his key breakthrough: the Minions are essentially children, a realization that helped him shape them as true protagonists rather than chaotic sidekicks.
Set in 1920s Hollywood, the film follows the Minions making a monster movie alongside Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd; Coffin co-wrote it with Brian Lynch after Chris Meledandri proposed the premise.
That return marks a shift for Coffin, who openly criticized earlier sequels and said he had doubts about previous Minions films even as the seven-movie franchise topped $5 billion at the box office.