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.
18 Miss Madison Hattie
The Fearsome Headmistress Of The Orphanage
Miss Hattie is one of the first antagonists to appear in Despicable Me. 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.
17 Dru Gru
Gru’s Brother, The Aspiring Villain
Dru is Gru’s twin brother in the movies, but he doesn’t have his brother’s natural villainous intuition. 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.
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16 Svengeance
An Evil Roller-Skating Swede
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.
15 Nun-Chuck
An Ironic Villain
Nun-Chuck is one of the villains facing Gru in Minions: The Rise of Gru. She is a member of the Vicious 6 and betrays the team leader, Wild Knuckles, along with the rest of her team. 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.
14 Jean-Clawed
A Frenchman With A Lobster Claw
As hinted at by his name, Jean-Clawed is a man from France, who sports a robotic lobster arm as his primary weapon. 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.
13 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. 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.
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12 Minions
The Ultimate Sidekicks
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.
11 Vector Perkins
A Wealthy Aspiring Villain
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.
10 Mr. Perkins
The Evil Banker
Mr. Perkins is the Director of the Bank of Evil and the father to Vector Perkins. 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.
9 Belle Bottom
The New Leader Of The Vicious 6
Belle Bottom conspired with the other members of the Vicious 6 to undermine and overthrow their former leader, Wild Knuckles. 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.
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8 Eduardo “El Macho” Perez
A Super Strong Evil Mastermind
El Macho was a major villain approximately 20 years before the events of Despicable Me 2, when he chose to fake his death and pursue a normal life with his family. 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.
7 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.
6 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. 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. 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.
5 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.
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4 Balthazar Bratt
The Child Star Turned Supervillain
Balthazar Bratt 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.
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. 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.
2 Scarlet Overkill
The First Female Supervillain
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.
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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.
