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| “ | 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! Using Herb’s invention to steal my crown?! | „ |
| ~ Scarlet getting angry at Kevin, Stuart, and Bob for their "betrayal". |
| “ | Good luck getting that crown tomorrow, little piggies. I know you won't disappoint me. | „ |
| ~ Scarlet to Kevin, Stuart, and Bob. |
Scarlet Overkill is the main antagonist of Illumination's 5th full-length feature film Minions and a minor character in the 2024 film Despicable Me 4.
She is a stylish, ambitious, and powerful criminal mastermind who is determined to dominate Britain. She is also the wife of Herb Overkill, and Kevin, Bob & Stuart's former boss-turned-archenemy.
She was voiced by Sandra Bullock in her first villainous role.
Personality[]
Scarlet is a witty, humorous, domineering, authoritative, and influential woman. Her backstory 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 age 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 tried to take the ruby from her in Villain-Con.
As implied in the bedtime story for the Minions, she was necessitous, penniless, insolvent, and abandoned when she was a child, so she determined to become the most arrogant and villainous queen of all in order to be respected by everyone who ever doubted her. 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 cannot bear the Minions' childishness.
Sometimes, she can also be cunning, mean and cantankerous when someone mocks or betrays her, even if it was accidental. Despite being cunning, her arrogance (and her past, which makes it seem as if she fears betrayal) makes her blind to the fact that Minions really didn't betray her. She can even be very hypocritical when the Minion tribe showed up to her when she was fighting Kevin; she was willing to kill all them too for being Minions even though they had nothing to do with her conflict with Kevin, Bob and Stuart.
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 a strapless red dress, long black gloves, a black choker around her neck, red lipstick on her lips, 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.
Several decades after her defeat, Scarlet has remained physically unchanged, except that she now sports a long white lock due to time passing.
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, and can also function as a shield. Her rocket dress also has access to weapons as well.
History[]
Scarlet's introduction[]
Scarlet is known for being the "world's first female supervillain". She attends the 1968 Villain Con as its trademark 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.
She ends up taking the minions back to her palace in England and introducing them to Herb, her husband. As she shows them all her stolen loot, she tells them of her plan to steal the British crown to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and become the new Queen of England. She then tells them a rather threatening bedtime story about a lonely and abandoned wolf becoming a villain and taking in three little pigs and sending them to steal a crown from her, but they fail, so she kills them. This makes evident the pressure she puts on the minions; 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, saying that she still hates them for their presumed betrayal and 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 collapse a chandelier over her, almost killing her. An enraged 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 just as the Minion tribe that has just arrived in the middle of the fight, she attempted to kill them too even though they had nothing to do with what happened between her and Kevin. Kevin then angrily hits Scarlet across five buildings, saving his Minion friends. However, Scarlet furiously rises and fires a nuclear lava missile to Kevin and the Minions, but Kevin grabs it and swallows the missile to save his tribe, and Scarlet tries to get away from the situation with Herb, but are stopped by Kevin, attempted to take them with him. 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[]
Wounded from being shoved through buildings, Scarlet and Herb show up again during Kevin's knighting ceremony, stealing the Queen's crown by their account. They attempt to escape, but they end up being frozen by young Felonious Gru, who takes away the crown from her hands, much to her fury & unaware of Gru but only knowing him as a little penguin of taking her crown. 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, after which they are imprisoned by AVL (although it was in the fourth film of Despicable Me saga) when Gru froze them both & arrested for their crimes.
After-Credits Scene[]
Scarlet and Herb appear in the after-credits scene, dancing and singing with the rest of the characters. However, they are scared off by an arriving Tyrannosaurus.
Imprisonment[]
Years later, Scarlet and Herb find themselves as prisoners in the AVL's maximum security prison. The aging couple enjoys Gru and Maxime Le Mal's concert, singing "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" with the rest of all villains (like Vector, El Macho, Balthazar Bratt, Mr. Perkins, Villain Con and Vicious 6).
Relationships[]
Relatives[]
- Her parents
- Herb Overkill - husband
Allies[]
- Kevin, Stuart and Bob
- Minions
- Nelson Family (all formerly)
- El Macho
- Balthazar Bratt
- Belle Bottom
- Nun-Chuck
- Svengeance
- Glam Slammer
- Frankie Fishlips
- Dumo the Sumo
- Mr. Spikey
- Jean-Clawed
- Stronghold
- Mr. Perkins
- Vector Perkins
- Maxime Le Mal
- Valentina
- Principal Übelschlecht
Enemies[]
- Felonious Gru
- Minions
- Queen Elizabeth
- Kevin, Stuart and Bob
- AVL
- Nelson Family
Quotes[]
| “ | A girl's gotta make a living. | „ |
| ~ 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...times change. | „ |
| ~ Scarlet Overkill, explaining her past. |
| “ | Didn't my speech inspire anyone to rise up and prove themselves worthy? All these villains and yet I still have the bear. Stuffed bear! Why am I holding a bear? Who has the ruby? | „ |
| ~ Scarlet after kicking the butts of all the villains hoping to become her henchmen, just before realizing that she no longer has the ruby. |
| “ | TINY YELLOW TRAITORS!! | „ |
| ~ Scarlet believing the Minions “betrayed“ her. |
| “ | You stole my dream! I was going to conquer England someday! There was going to be a coronation, and I was going to be made queen. Every moment was planned. I was going to wear a dress so sparkly, it glowed. And everyone who ever doubted me would be watching, and they would be crying! I was going to be the picture of elegance and CLASS!! And you pinheads SCREWED IT UP!!! | „ |
| ~ Scarlet explaining her plan to become Queen to the minion trio, before trying to kill them. |
| “ | Scarlet: This is it, boys! Things do not look good for you. Oh, and I'm keeping the bear. Bob: Tim! Scarlet: You're not gonna need him where you're going. Heaven. |
„ |
| ~ Scarlet deciding to keep Bob's teddy bear as the explosives soon run out. |
| “ | 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 annoyed to see other Minions and about to kill them when they had nothing to do with her conflict with Kevin. |
| “ | Kevin. Kevin. I know you're out there. You think you've gotten away? Well, what do we have here? Oh my goodness! Which one shall I kill first? Little Bob? Stuart? BOB? STUART??? I will do it Kevin. If you are not back here by dawn. | „ |
| ~ Scarlet threatening Kevin |
| “ | And just for the record, my little deviled eggs. You can thank Kevin for what I'm about to do to you! | „ |
| ~ Scarlet prepares to kill the Minions with lava blasts, only for Kevin to knock her through the buildings. |
| “ | 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 crown! | „ |
| ~ Scarlet before she gets frozen by Gru. |
| “ | Scarlet: Child, give me that back. Young Gru: No, I don't think so. Scarlet: 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 first and so far only villainous role.
- Scarlet is the first female main antagonist in Illumination Entertainment's line of movies, with Belle Bottom after her.
- Coincidentally, she and Belle Bottom originate from the Minions series and are seen in Despicable Me 4 as friends while imprisoned.
- Scarlet can be seen as a dark parallel or foil to Gru. because, despite being the ex-boss of the Minions before they found Gru, her leadership style sharply contrasts with his. While Gru, despite his initial villainy, remains loyal to the Minions and never betrays or attempts to harm them, even when they frustrate him with their incompetence. Scarlet however is far less forgiving. Her willingness to turn on the Minions when they fail her highlights her ruthlessness and self-centeredness. Had Gru chosen to prioritize his own goals above the well-being of his allies, he might have ended up like Scarlet.
- Scarlet Overkill is the only villain in the franchise that does not physically appear or make her plots at the beginning of the film after/before the title card appears.
- It's said that she has no ill will towards the Minions, genuinely touched by the gift of the tiny crown, and simply wanted to hurt them to prove a point.
- She is the only Despicable Me villain who doesn't know Gru, but only for one short time when he froze her.
- Scarlet Overkill makes a cameo appearance in Minions: Rise of Gru on Stuart's lunchbox.
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 Villains
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Gru's Family and Servants Villain Con Villains Vicious 6 Bank of Evil El Macho's Lair Balthazar Bratt's Lair Lycee Pas Bon School of Villainy Others | ||