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Despicable Me 4 Cast Reveals The Character Who Scares Them Most In The New Movie
Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig called this new Despicable Me 4 character "terrifying" and "ominous." Find out why.
Despicable Me 4 voice actor Joey King isn’t “terrifying” or “ominous,” her alter ego, Poppy Prescott, is just drawn that way.
That’s the verdict from DM4 stars Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, and Will Ferrell. They all picked Poppy as the most frightening character in the new movie, which is out on July 3.
Who is Poppy Prescott in Despicable Me 4?
In the latest chapter of the animated film series, Gru (Carell), an ex-supervillian-turned family man, his wife, Lucy (Wiig), and their kids, are shaken up by the arrival of Gru’s new nemesis Maxime Le Mal (Ferrell).
Poppy, a girl who's an aspiring supervillain who lives near Gru, gets in on the action and helps stir the plot.
“Poppy’s pretty terrifying,” Carell told NBC Insider.
Wiig flipped over the fact that Poppy sends shivers the instant the teen appears onscreen, thanks to the lighting and spooky special effects.
“It’s very ominous,” said Wiig, adding that Poppy seemed to “slink back into the shadows.”
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“It’s so ominous,” Carell echoed, “and it’s so foreboding. How she sort of drifts out of the frame.”
Carrell has starred in the Despicable Me 2010 original film and its three sequels. He remains amazed at how scary great animators’ work can be.
“I don't know how they do it,” he said. “Their animation is incredible.”
Other New Villains in Despicable Me 4
With a surname like Le Mal, it’s no shocker that Ferrell’s character comes with his own pitch-dark streak.
Still, when he was asked who’s scarier — Maxime or Poppy — Ferrell, who admitted he jumped at the chance to be part of the movie, chose without hesitation.
“I’m gonna vote for Poppy,” he said.
King, who earned an Emmy nomination for playing matricidal Gypsy Rose Blanchard in The Act, gets her colleagues’ response to Poppy.
“I love my character,” she said at a premiere event for the movie. “She’s so, like, casually sinister. She’s absolutely mad. And she's funny… She’s, like, a little girl who's just, like, so villainous. And I think that that is so on-brand.”
King added that she’s overjoyed to be part of the film. “I grew up with these movies,” she said. “My family loves these movies. I love these movies. And now I get to be in one of them. I’m just so happy.”
Even if that means she’s scaring the pants off audiences -- and co-stars.
Catch Despicable Me 4 on Peacock starting on Oct. 31, 2024.
NBC Insider reporting by Stephanie Gomulka.
