“Despicable Me 4” director on why the new Mega Minions were inspired by “Fantastic Four”

Meet the new super powered characters.

Despicable Me first introduced Gru's delightful yellow Minions, Despicable Me 2 had evil Minions, and Despicable Me 3 had mutinous prison Minions. So, when it came time to plot the fourth film in the beloved animated franchise, co-directors Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage knew they needed to up the stakes. Keeping with the zeitgeist, they turned to superheroes.

That's right: For the first time ever, a Despicable Me film features Mega Minions. These Minions, as seen in the clip above and images below, are essentially Minions who get superpowers while working for the Anti-Villain League under Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), who is called out of retirement to take down a new villain, Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell).

After escaping from prison, Maxime seeks revenge against Gru (Steve Carell) for arresting him. So, the AVL relocates Gru and his family — which now includes his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig); adoptive daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan); and new baby, Gru Jr. — to a safe house in Mayflower, a new, upscale neighborhood.

"So, when we started, [the Minions] were more part of the story in Mayflower, the nice town, and they were sort of hanging out on yachts, and I think they were in Vegas for part of the time," Renaud tells Entertainment Weekly. "They had this kind of well-to-do lifestyle that they were living, but there wasn't really enough comedy in it. So then we started talking about them working at the AVL and having the opportunity for them to go be agents for the AVL, which we thought was fun."

That led the creative team back to an idea they'd first started playing around with while making the second film but didn't ultimately pursue — super Minions. The final versions in the fourth film include a boulder-looking Minion reminiscent of the Fantastic Four character The Thing, a stretchy Minion à la Mr. Fantastic, another that shoots lasers from its eye, and a bullet-shaped Minion that can fly.

Related: Watch Ron Burgundy criticize Will Ferrell's performance in Despicable Me 4: 'People started to walk out'

"I know for me, I was definitely thinking about simple powers that are very graphic and easily understood. We talked about a lot of things, but I think knowing the amount of screen time we had, which wasn't much, [we went with] very kind of archetypal powers sort of in the vein and the look of the Fantastic Four," he says.

"So their powers aren't exactly the Fantastic Four, but one thing that I like as a comparison to that group is the Fantastic Four powers are slightly goofy," Renaud continues. "The Invisible Woman, the fire guy, the rock guy, there's something about it. It works great as a comic, but the visual and graphic sensibility of those powers really lent themselves to the Minions."

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Of course, other superhero properties provided inspiration, too, but ultimately, which Minions got which powers came down to the original designs of the beloved yellow goofballs themselves. "In other words, with the Minion who stretches — that's Tim, who's our big tall guy — and so it makes sense [for him]," Renaud says. "And of course, Mel, with the laser beam powers, he's a one-eyed guy with a goggle, and then the goggle extends. So it was looking at ways that even some of the design as a normal minion, how that design could lead to what their superpower might be."

Related: How to watch the Despicable Me movies in order

In addition to the Mega Minions, Despicable Me 4 also features the voice talents of series newcomers Stephen Colbert, Sofía Vergara, Chloe Fineman, and Joey King. The film is now playing in theaters.

Watch the clip above for more on the Mega Minions.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.