DESPICABLE ME Sequel Greenlit; Short Films Featuring “The Minions” in Development

People who enjoyed last weekend’s top-grossing film Despicable Me will be pleased to know that talks are already underway for Despicable Me 2.  Deadline reports that Universal Pictures, Illumination (Universal’s family film division) founder/CEO Chris Meledandri, and writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio have begun discussions about a sequel.  Despicable‘s $56 million opening weekend was notable when you consider that there was no built-in audience.  Now it has built an audience, Universal is grabbing hold of a new brand they can develop.

Part of developing that brand entails the creation of two new short films featuring the adorable yellow minions of Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), Despicable Me‘s supervillain protagonist.  It is currently unknown whether these short films will be shown in front of future Illumination features a la Pixar, or if they’ll be distributed in another fashion.