Scarlet Overkill

"Have any of you ever dreamed of working for the greatest supervillain of all time?!"

- Scarlet Overkill introducing herself. "Don't you "Scarlet" me, you backstabbing little traitors!!."

- Scarlet getting angry over Kevin, Stuart and Bob's betrayal.

Scarlet Overkill (also known as Scarlet) is the main antagonist of Illumination's 5th feature film Minions, the prequel to the Despicable Me films.

She was voiced by Sandra Bullock.

Information
Scarlet is a stylish, manipulative and ambitious villain determined to dominate the world and become the first female supervillain. She is also the wife of Herb Overkill.

Scarlet's introduction
Scarlet is known for being the "world's first female supervillain". She attends the 1968's Villain Con as its public speaker in search of new henchmen, setting up a challenge of whoever steals her ruby gets the job, which a trio of Minions win after Bob accidentally swallows the gem. She first appeared at Villain Con as a giant shadow behind a wall, telling everybody that it feels so good to be bad, making everyone cheer. Scarlet then turned her dress into a rocket and flew out through the wall as a dramatic entrance.

Having taken Kevin, Stuart, and Bob to her castle in England, she introduces them to her husband Herb and her so far stolen loot. She then addresses about her plan of stealing the British crown to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and become the new Queen of England; In that case, if they failed the mission, she would kill them.

Back Stabbing Little Traitors
Later in the news, it is mentioned that Bob has been crowned King after taking out Arthur Pendragon's sword in the stone, allowing the Minions to get hold of the crown. However, feeling betrayed after hearing about this, Scarlet angrily travels to the Buckingham Palace to kill them, stating how she had planned everything to steal the crown. To appease Scarlet, Bob abdicates the crown to her. Although Scarlet says to the press that she's touched by the Minions' action, she sends them to an underground dungeon to be tortured, telling that she still hates them for stealing her turf.

Queen Scarlet
During the coronation ceremony (attended by many of the Villain Con villains), Kevin, Stuart, and Bob try to apologize, but accidentally finish collapsing a chandelier over her, almost killing her. Scarlet survives and orders them to be executed, refusing to accept that it was an accident. Kevin manages to escape, but Stuart and Bob end up being captured by the villains. She sends a message to Kevin through the news threatening to kill both Stuart and Bob if he does not come by dawn. Finally seeing that Scarlet is not the type of master that the Minions want to follow, Kevin decides to take action to rescue his friends and defeat Scarlet for good.

Final Battle and Defeat
The next morning, Scarlet and Herb settle a large number of explosives in order to murder Stuart and Bob, and Scarlet takes Bob's teddy bear as a memento, much to Bob's dismay. Fortunately, a giant Kevin arrives at the rescue by using a hydrant to stop the explosions. Upset by this turn of events, Scarlet furiously faces the gigantic Kevin and fires a missile to the Minion tribe that has just arrived in the middle of the fight. However, Kevin swallows the missile to save his tribe, and Scarlet tries to get away from the situation with Herb, but are stopped by Kevin. They both shield themselves when the missile is about to explode inside Kevin's mouth. However, Kevin manages to escape the explosion and shrink back to his normal size while retrieving Bob's teddy bear, much to the other Minions' delight.

New Master
Though it would have seemed that Scarlet and Herb have perished in the explosion, they reappear alive during Kevin's knighting ceremony, stealing the Queen's crown by their account. They attempt to escape, but they end up being frozen by a young Felonious Gru, who takes away the crown from her hands. Spotting Gru, Kevin sees that he has found a new potential master, so he and the other Minions follow Gru. Scarlet is now upset that she is done for, but Bob gives Scarlet the little crown originally gifted by Queen Elizabeth to his teddy bear out of pity before leaving. It is unknown what happens to Scarlet and Herb afterward, though it is possible that they were arrested and sent to jail for their crimes, though Scarlet takes solace that at least she owns a crown to herself.

After-Credits Scene
Scarlet, Herb, and the villains appear in the after-credits scene somehow, dancing and singing with the rest of the characters. However, they are scared off by an arriving Tyrannosaurus.

Personality
Scarlet is a witty, humorous, domineering, authoritative, and influential woman, and the story about how she became a villain inspired many people to follow in her footsteps. According to Tina Nelson, she started out as an average little girl with braces and pigtails. But by the time that she was thirteen, she built a criminal empire. She likes to be overconfident and boastful about her interesting gadgets invented by her husband, such as her trademark Rocket Dress. She also knows some skills of martial arts, and she can apparently use them immediately, which is shown when the villains supposedly tried to take the ruby from her in Villain-Con.

As implied in the Bedtime story for the Minions, she was necessitous, penniless, unloved, insolvent, and abandoned when she was a child, so she determined to become the most arrogant and villainous queen. Because of this, she is also very elegant, grateful, and impressive to those who support her and speaks diplomatically in public. When the Minions work for her, she appears to be very thoughtful and tender to her allies, though she occasionally can't bear the Minions' childishness. Sometimes, she can also be extremely cunning, mean, offensive, and cantankerous when someone mocks or betrays her, even if it was accidental.

Appearance
Scarlet has a short, flat pointy nose and short, round, bushy black hair with curls at the bottom of her sides, and green eyes. She wears red lipstick and a red dress with long black gloves, black pantyhose, and tall, black high heels. Sometimes, the bottom of her red dress becomes a giant rocket that she likes to fly around in.

Powers and Abilities
While Scarlet is powerless, she is a skilled fighter. Her dress can turn into a giant rocket, giving Scarlet the ability to fly. Her rocket dress also has access to weapons as well.

Quotes
"It's red hot!"

- Scarlet's first words.

"Doesn't it feels so good to be bad?"

- Scarlet's introduction.

"When I started out, people said a woman could never rob a bank as well as a man. Well...time's changed!"

- Scarlet Overkill, explaining her past

"And so help me, I never wanna see another one of your goofy, bug-eyed faces EVER AGAIN!! (hearing more Minions chanting her name) What?! Oh, you gotta be kidding me."

- Scarlet Overkill battling a giant Kevin.

"They took everything from me! My castle! My reputation! Things look bleak, baby, I'm not gonna lie! But now, at least, I have my CROOOWWW-"

- Scarlet before being frozen by Gru.

"Child, give me that back. (Young Gru: No, I don't think so!) You have no idea who you are messing with! I am the greatest supervillain of all time! (Young Gru: [chuckles] Oh, were you [laughs])"

- A young Felonious Gru taking the crown from Scarlet

"Are you really going to allow that little penguin to make off with MY CROWN?!! Oh, Herb.... I'm done. (Bob gives her the little crown meant for his teddy bear) For me? Awwww...."

- Scarlet Overkill's last words and realizing that she's finally been defeated.

Trivia

 * Scarlet is Sandra Bullock's very first villainous role.
 * Scarlet's design is nearly the same as the singer Katy Perry.
 * Scarlet is the first female main antagonist in the Despicable Me storyline, since Vector Perkins, El Macho, and Balthazar Bratt are all male.
 * Despite being a villainess, she is similar to Lucy Wilde from the Despicable Me franchise. Both are women wearing dresses (Lucy wears a turquoise spaghetti strap slip dress while Scarlet wears a red dress). Both are married to males (Scarlet to Herb, Lucy to Gru). Both have a similar nose size (despite Lucy's being slightly bigger), same skin tone, and identical figure. Both have had a Minion crush on them (Kevin to Scarlett as he fantasizes about her declaring him and his trio as the best henchmen, Dave to Lucy when she thanks him for his cupcake gift to her).
 * Scarlet has the ability to turn her red dress into a rocket, which must have been invented by her husband as he invented all her other inventions.
 * Scarlet Overkill is the first Illumination character to be a female antagonist.