All 19 Despicable Me & Minions Villains, Ranked Worst To Best

Summary

• The villains in
  Despicable Me
  range from terrifying to silly, but they all add fun and entertaining elements to the franchise.
• Gru’s twin brother, Dru, struggles to live up to their father’s villainous career but eventually proves himself out of love for his brother.
• Gru is the most capable and impressive villain in the franchise, using his intelligence and ability to work with others to outsmart any challenge.

Despicable Me features a wide and varied cast of villains in the five films currently released as of 2023, but only one can be the best. Despicable Me is a supervillain story about the despicable villain Gru, and how he grows to have a deep affection for three young girls that he adopts. Throughout the movies, Gru’s early life is explored, like his path to becoming a villain, and his relationships with his adoptive daughters, the Minions, Lucy Wilde, and others.

Throughout the series, there have been over a dozen villains who have played a vital role in the journey of Despicable Me’s core family, Gru, Margo, Edith, and Agnes. These villains have ranged from terrifying and dangerous, to more negligible and silly aspiring criminals. The villains are at the heart of the story, and despite their varying qualities, they all manage to add fun and entertaining elements to the franchise.

19 Miss Madison Hattie

The Fearsome Headmistress Of The Orphanage

Miss Hattie is one of the first antagonists to appear in Despicable Me. She acts as a minor villain, and unlike many of the other antagonists in the franchise (such as the first Depicable Me’s own Vector), she isn’t in any way linked to supervillainy. Miss Hattie is voiced by Kristen Wiig, who does a fantastic job at making the character completely unlikable and, at the same time, quite funny.

She runs the orphanage and employs the children in forced child labor, having them sell cookies and perform menial chores such as cleaning her stuff. Miss Hattie is unkind, uncaring, and unpleasant, and thankfully, once Gru adopts the girls from her orphanage, they don’t have to deal with her cruelty any further. Mitt Hattie is a clear parody of Miss Hannigan from the musical Annie, and many viewers also draw comparisons to Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter movies and books.

18 Dru Gru

Gru’s Brother, The Aspiring Villain

Appearing in both Despicable Me 3 and Despicable Me 4, Dru is Gru’s twin brother in the movies, but he doesn’t have his brother’s natural villainous intuition. Gru’s sibling is also voiced by Steve Carell, and he looks almost exactly like Gru but with hair (and a white suit to juxtapose Gru’s black and gray). While Dru is arguably the Despicable Me villain with the most direct ties to Gru himself, he’s also among the least threatening.

Dru was raised separately from his brother when their parents split up, and despite being raised by their successful supervillain father, Dru struggled to live up to his father’s career. When their father passes away, Dru reconnects with his brother to learn how to be a villain, but he doesn’t listen to his brother’s guidance. However, he does convince the minions to help him steal and run away with Gru’s airship, and when Gru catches him, he agrees to give him a headstart.

17 Svengeance

An Evil Roller-Skating Swede

Minions: The Rise of Gru introduced several villains to the Despicable Me franchise, and while the sheer number of them meant their stories couldn’t be explored in quite as much detail, their character designs are incredibly memorable regardless. One such villain is the Swedish Vicious 6 member Svengeance, voiced by Dolph Lundgren. Like the other Vicious 6 members, he also returned for a cameo at the end of Despicable Me 4.

Svengeance has one of the most creative names of the members of the Vicious 6, but also some of the lamest powers. Svengeance is essentially really good at roller-skating, and he also has spiky arm and knee pads. Along with the rest of his team, he is swiftly defeated by Gru and the minions before being captured. He may be a member of one of the best villain teams in the Despicable Me franchise, but his powers don’t appear to match his level of renown.

16 Nun-Chuck

An Ironic Villain

Nun-Chuck is one of the villains facing Gru in Minions: The Rise of Gru, and is voiced by Lucy Lawlesss. Like almost all of the Vicious Six in the despicable me prequel, she isn’t as much a fleshed out character as she is an excuse to use a hilarious pun-name with a look and personality to match. In the case of Nun-Chuck, she is literally just a nun with nunchucks. Nun-Chuck is one of the less prominent members of the Vicious Six in terms of the plot of Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Her main notable act in the story occured when she and the rest of the Vicious 6 betray their team leader, Wild Knuckles. When Gru auditions to join the team as a child, she is one of the members to laugh at him and send him away. Her costume is an ironic play on her weapon of choice, as she dresses as a goodly Nun, despite being a villain.

15 Jean-Clawed

A Frenchman With A Lobster Claw

Of the minor Viscious 6 members who exist purely because their name is a humorous pun on their backstory and power, Jean-Clawed is perhaps the funniest (conceptually speaking, at least). As hinted at by his name, Jean-Clawed is a man from France, who sports a robotic lobster arm as his primary weapon. However, while this on the surface may seem like a pretty pointless and gimmicky ability, Jean-Clawed also has a Lobster mech, which proves itself to be somewhat more useful than his claw.

Jean-Clawed is another member of the Vicious 6 who rebuffs a young Gru as they hope to join the villain’s supergroup. Jean-Clawed is eventually defeated by Gru and his Minions when they try to recover the Zodiac Stone. The character is voiced by cult action-movie legend Jean-Claude Van Damme, which adds yet another layer of humor to his name pun.

14 Stronghold

Super Strong Meat Head

Another member of the Vicious 6, who betrayed their leader to obtain the Zodiac Stone. As with the others in the team, he appears in the box office hit Minions: The Rise of Gru. Stronghold may not have a pun for a name that’s as funny as Jean-Clawed of Nun-Chuck, but he does have the most conventionally useful super abilities. As Stronghold’s name suggests, Stronghold is incredibly strong, and seems to gain his strength through his metallic gauntlets.

Despite his super strength, Gru outsmarted him and used the stone to turn him into a Bull, before he was captured by the Anti-Villain League. In keeping with the rest of the Vicious 6, Stronghold has a surprising celebrity cameo for his relatively few speaking lines — Danny Trejo of Machete fame. Like many other villains in the franchise, both in the Vicious 6 and otherwise, Stronghold briefly appeared at the end of Despicable Me 4.

13 Minions

The Ultimate Sidekicks

The Minions in the Despicable Me and Minions movies are, of course, heroes from the audience’s perspective. However, as with Gru and many of the other protagonists of the franchise, they are villains in their own world. The Minions delight in following evil masterminds, and as the opening of the first Minions movie shows, they spent thousands of years looking for a “big boss” before finding Gru. While they’re not powerful individually, as a collective they’ve been essential to Gru’s plans.

The Minions are a major part of the Despicable Me franchise that appears in every entry. In addition to the mainline films, two spin-off movies focused on the Minions, and their journey to becoming villainous sidekicks. Despite their limited intelligence, they are fiercely loyal and resourceful, and their huge numbers can overwhelm most people that they encounter. The Minions are some of the best villains in the franchise, despite their status as sidekicks.

12 Vector Perkins

A Wealthy Aspiring Villain

The first major antagonist introduced in the Despicable Me movies was Vector, a young supervillain whose career is on a steep enough upward trajectory that Gru starts to feel threatened by his presence. However, while the start of Vector’s career may be going well on the surface, Gru quickly discovers that the jumpsuit-clad villain isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.

Thanks to his father’s enormous wealth and connections, Vector had aspirations of becoming a supervillain and combined his father’s money with his intelligence to commit impressive crimes. Vector managed to steal several landmarks before appearing on Gru’s radar and entering into competition as rivals. Vector was let down by his overwhelming arrogance. Gru proves his position as the better villain against Vector and Vector ends up stranded on the moon. He must have returned to earth at some point, however, as he’s seen with the rest of the franchise villains at the end of Despicable Me 4.

11 Mr. Perkins

The Evil Banker

Mr. Perkins is the Director of the Bank of Evil and the father to Vector Perkins. Voiced by Will Arnett, it’s never explained exactly how Mr. Perkins cam to work at the Bank of Evil, or how he became director between the events of Minions: The Rise of Gru and Despicable Me. However, given that every other villain he interacts with in the franchise seems to treat him with respect — or at the very least, sensible caution — it seems safe to assume that he’s quite a ruthless and dangerous character.

Despite his position as a successful businessman, he is also a pivotal villain within the franchise, appearing in both Despicable Me, and Minions: The Rise of Gru. Mr. Perkins possesses a much more menacing and intimidating presence than his son and is an influential person in the world of villains.

10 Belle Bottom

The New Leader Of The Vicious 6

Voiced by Taraji P. Henson, the main member of the Vicious 6 in terms of the Minions: The Rise of Gru story line is Belle Bottom, the new leader after Wild Knuckles was betrayed. It is Belle who invites the young Gru to try out to be the team’s new member, and like the rest was also present for a camero appearance at the end of Despicable Me 4.

Belle dresses in disco attire and wields a special belt with a disco ball mace as her primary weapon. Belle is by far the biggest threat from the new Vicious 6, and she leads them in their efforts to betray Wild Knuckles and embark on a new era of villainy. Despite this, she is also defeated by Gru when he teams up with Wild Knuckles and is detained by the AVL.

9 Eduardo “El Macho” Perez

A Super Strong Evil Mastermind

Eduardo Perez is the second main antagonist the franchise introduced after Vector, and is Gru’s main adversary in Despicable Me 2. El Macho (voiced by Benjamin Bratt) was a major villain approximately 20 years before the events of Despicable Me 2, when he chose to fake his death by riding a shark strapped with dynamite into a volcano. He did this to pursue a normal life with his family, and becomes as much a foil for Gru and his relationship with his adopted daughters as Eduardo Perez as El Macho is for the titular antihero when it comes to supervillainy.

At the height of his career, he was an infamous bank robber who wielded his super strength to shake down security trucks with ease. After a long hiatus, El Macho decides to return to villainy with the aid of a secret chemical compound, PX-41, which turns people into terrifying purple monsters. This is what he uses to convert some of the Minions into the Evil Minions and eventually uses on himself.

8 Herb Overkill

The Adoring Husband Of Scarlet Overkill

Herb appears in the Despicable Me spin-off movie Minions alongside his wife Scarlet. He was a huge fan of Scarlet before getting married, and once married, took her name and became her faithful companion. He is a supervillain and genius inventor in his own right, and what makes him so evil is just how relaxed he remains while going about his nefarious deeds.

Whether torturing Minions, or stealing from Queen Elizabeth II, he manages to keep calm and conduct his evil business. However, it’s clear that his wife is the driving force behind the pair, with Herb simply lending his expertise and skills to whatever scheme she’s currently cooking up. Herb is voiced by Jon Hamm, and both Herb and Scarlet appeared at the end of Despicable Me 4 alongside the rest of the villains in the franchise.

7 Dr. Nefario

The Most Genius Evil Inventor

Dr. Nefario is a genius inventor who serves as Gru’s right-hand man in the first movie, Despicable Me. He is voiced by Russell Brand and, with the exception of Minions, has appeared in every movie in the franchise. Dr. Nefario is the man who brings Gru’s evil imagination to life by creating the inventions that Gru dreams up, although, due to his old age, he often mishears Gru’s orders and ends up with different results than intended.

In Minions: The Rise of Gru, it was revealed that Gru met Dr. Nefario when he auditioned for a spot in the Vicious 6. Dr. Nefario believes in the mission of being evil, and when he sees Gru softening up, he chooses to part ways to serve someone more committed to being a villain, but he does eventually come back to aid his old friend.

6 Purple Minions

Minions On PX-41

When Dr. Nefario creates the potent chemical PX-41, its full effects are only realized once it is administered to the evil, but generally laidback villainous underlings, the Minions. Minions who receive a dose of the chemical transform into purple monsters with long hair, stretched-out arms, and sharpened teeth, to become wild and terrifying.

The Evil Minions are much stronger than their yellow counterparts, and prone to more anger, criminal behavior and generally causing mayhem. The super-serum makes the Purple Minions incredibly unstable, and they feel almost like a parody of Marvel’s The Hulk. Thankfully, Dr. Nefario develops an antitdote to PX-41, and no Purple Minions exist by the time Despicable Me 2 concludes.

5 Balthazar Bratt

The Child Star Turned Supervillain

Balthazar Bratt, voiced by South Park co-creator Trey Parker, was once a hugely popular young star in Hollywood who had his own show, Evil Bratt, where he went about committing major crimes. While his show was popular when he was a child, Bratt experienced a growth spurt that caused him to grow taller and get acne, which immediately shifted the tone of his show and sunk his popularity. As a result, Bratt’s show was canceled, and he was left to figure things out on his own.

Becoming resentful towards Hollywood and delusionally believing himself to be his character from the show, Bratt grew up to continue the misdeeds he played out on screen in real life. He used his sublime intelligence and creativity to build impressive inventions and turn against those who negatively impacted his life, which eventually included Gru, who almost got in the way of an evil plot of his. Bratt is also a skilled fighter and master of disguise, making him an all-round, major threat and formidable villain.

4 Maxime Le Mal

A Human-Roach Hybrid With A Grudge

Voiced by the inimitable Will Ferrell, Maxime Le Mal is the principal antagonist of Despicable Me 4, and proves himself to be one of Gru’s most formidable foes in the franchise so far. Like Dru, Maxime has a history with Gru, as the pair were rivals at the supervillain school Lycée Pas Bon. After Gru stole the song Maxime was due to perform at the sschool talent show, Maxime swore revenge, harboring the grudge long into his adult life.

Alongside his girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara), Maxime goes to incredible lengths to get his revenge. Not only does he turn himself into a human-cockroach hybrid, but he also does the same to Gru’s son, Gru. Jr. However, by the end of the movie, he and Gru seem to reach an understanding. The movie ends with Gru and Maxime singing a duet, much to the delight of the former franchise villains shown to be incarcerated by the AVL.

3 Wild Knuckles

The Founder Of The Vicious 6

Wild Knuckles was one of the greatest supervillains of all time, who founded a supervillain team, known as the Vicious 6. However, by the time Gru meets him, he’s been kicked off the team (or, to be more specific, the other members tried to kill him). Wild Knuckles was a pivotal figure in Young Gru’s life, and taught him many of the foundational fundamentals of supervillainy.

A master fighter, and ingenious villain, Wild Knuckles knew how to delegate and get a great team together, but when he was betrayed, he suffered a fall from grace and a dip in confidence. When young Gru finds him and seeks his mentorship, WK reignites his passion for villainy and decides to mentor the young villain and take back the Zodiac Stone from his team. Wild Knuckles was voiced by Alan Arkin, and wasn’t present for the cameo scene at the end of Despicable Me 4. Given his age when Gru was a child, it’s likely that he passed away.

2 Scarlet Overkill

The First Female Supervillain

While she was introduced in Minions, Scarlet Overkill is canonically the first supervillain seen in the franchise, as it’s her that the Minions work for shortly before meeting Gru. Scarlet is voiced by Sandra Bullock, and is seen alongside her husband Herb at the end of Despicable Me 4, as she and the other villains in the franchise are incarcerated by the AVL.

Scarlet Overkill is a genius villain, and one of the most ambitious and ruthless people in the Despicable Me franchise. She is the primary antagonist of the Minions movie, employing three of the Minions to perform a special job stealing Queen Elizabeth II’s jewels. She is threatening, highly intelligent, and willing to go to extreme lengths to get her way. Scarlet is one of the best villains in the franchise, just narrowly missing out on the top spot to one incredible villain.

1 Felonious Gru

Technically, He’s Retired

Gru is undoubtedly the most capable and impressive villain in the entire Despicable Me franchise. Throughout the films, he proves his ability to outsmart and overcome any other challenge that gets in his path. As a child, he took down the Vicious 6, and as an adult, he quashed numerous threats that could have impacted himself and his loved ones. Gru’s greatest strength lies in his ability to work with and rely on others.

Instead of going about things like a typical villain, being greedy, selfish, and arrogant, Gru gets help where he needs it. He is a super genius, but when he sees that Dr. Nefario is a more capable inventor, he employs him. Gru takes on the challenging, but incredibly capable mass of Minions to aid in his evil efforts, and he knows when to quit. Gru is the master of villainy, and despite his early retirement, he still has the skills to beat anyone that rivals him, as shown countless times in the Despicable Me movies.