Gather around, Minions. Universal has set some new release dates including Despicable Me 3, a new iteration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and another exciting project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has set release dates for three big upcoming animated films, all coming from Illumination Entertainment.
Of the three, it’s likely that Despicable Me 3 will be the biggest success for the studio. Despicable Me 2 was one of the biggest hits of the year, making almost a billion dollars at the box office. With that in mind, Universal announced that Despicable Me 3 will be released on June 30, 2017.
Why the big gap between the second and third? In case you missed it, Minions, the spinoff film following everybody’s favorite yellow guys, will fall in between the two sequels. Minions will be released on July 3, 2015.
The other big name announcement here is one that is a little cringe-worthy. Universal will also release a new version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas on November 17, 2017. Pete Candeland will direct the “newly imagined” version of the film, adapting it from a script from Michael LeSieur.
Illumination also made the 2012 version of The Lorax, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see it be similar to that film. The Lorax wasn’t received very well critically, so we can only hope How the Grinch Stole Christmas will be better.
The third project is perhaps more exciting than either of the previous two, and it’s one we’ll see even earlier. That animated film will be written and directed by Garth Jennings and will be released on December 21, 2016. Unfortunately, that’s all we currently know about it, but with a director like Jennings (Son of Rambow, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), it’s not hard to be excited.