Set in the 1970s, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” has a pint-sized Gru interviewing with The Vicious Six, a band of stylish and fab supervillains he hopes to team up with. But after they dismiss him as too young and scrawny to be truly evil, he manages to steal a precious stone medallion from the Vicious Six, and that certainly gets their attention. The only problem is, one of Gru’s Minions ends up trading the stone for his own pet rock.

“We just stole something from the worst villains in the world,” Gru says in the trailer. “Now I will be a supervillain!”

Joining the voice cast of the animated prequel are Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews and Alan Arkin.

Kyle Balda directs the film along with co-directors Brad Abelson and Jonathan del Val. Universal is releasing the latest film from Illumination Entertainment on July 3.

Watch the trailer for “Minions: The Rise of Gru” above.