George Lucas is set to lend his voice to a character in Minions & Monsters, the latest film in Illumination’s Despicable Me franchise.
In a recent interview with Collider, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri revealed that the Star Wars filmmaker joined the animated feature, which will hit cinemas on July 1, after sharing his longtime admiration of the films.
“I had this privilege of meeting George about two years ago, and what led to my meeting him is how much he loves Illumination movies, and specifically Despicable Me, and even more specifically, the Minions,” Meledandri said.
“It was such a thrill to learn that and then to share it with the team, because obviously he’s among a very small group of people who the entire studio shares a level of respect for that is just off the charts.”
Meledandri said that after the meeting, he approached director Pierre Coffin, co-writer Brian Lynch, and producer Bill Ryan to pitch the idea of Lucas being cast.
“An idea for a character came up out of the story, and so I said to Pierre, ‘Well, what if we could get George?’ And they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I had no idea, but I got such a fast yes,” he recalled.
“We’re thrilled to have him in the film. I saw him recently, and he’s already talking to me about the role he wants to do next in the next Minions movie. So, it’s pretty incredible.”
Lucas ended up recording his lines in Paris, and joins Jesse Eisenberg, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Trey Parker and Phil LaMarr on the voice cast.
The Minions were first introduced to audiences with 2010’s Despicable Me as the little yellow sidekicks of former supervillain Gru (Steve Carell).
They most recently appeared in 2024’s Despicable Me 4. Before that, they triggered a trend that saw hordes of teenagers rock up to cinemas in suits. In 2022, the viral #gentleminions fad racked up millions of views on TikTok, and led to some cinemas enforcing dress code restrictions, with one independent cinema in Wadebridge, Cornwall, banning teenagers wearing suits from watching the film.