The Visual Timeline of Minions: Every Movie Mapped from 42 B. C. to Modern Day

A fresh look at The Visual Timeline of Minions: Every Movie Mapped from 42 B. C. to Modern Day, bringing you expert commentary.

The story does not begin with an eccentric mastermind in suburban New Jersey. It starts in the primordial soup. As established in the opening montage of 2015's Minions, yellow single-celled organisms formed an instinctual biological imperative hundreds of millions of years ago: pledge loyalty to the apex predator of their era. They flanked a Tyrannosaurus rex into an erupting volcano, triggered an Egyptian pharaoh's crushing pyramid collapse, and accidentally turned a cannon on Napoleon during the retreat from Moscow. After retreating into an isolated ice cave for generations, severe depression set in without a master to serve.

That isolation breaks in 1968. A brave trio consisting of Kevin, Stuart, and Bob treks across North America to Villain-Con in Orlando, Florida, searching for dynamic leadership. They align with Scarlet Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock, leading to a royal heist in London that nearly levels the British monarchy. The final moments of this first prequel deliver the critical historical hinge: an eight-year-old child named Felonious Gru arrives equipped with a freeze ray, freezes Overkill, steals the Queen's crown, and unwittingly wins the lifelong devotion of an entire species.