It’s safe to say that everyone is madly in love with Benedict Cumberbatch. Whether he’s solving mysteries in Sherlock, breaking Nazi codes in The Imitation Game, or getting his soul punched out of his body by Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange, people are always happy to make gifs of his face and post them on Tumblr or whatever. But what if he really tested the limits of that love? What if he came down from his mountain on Christmas eve and swiped the roast beast right out of your icebox? What if he took all of the pop guns, pampoogas, pantookas, and drums? Or the checkerboards, bizilbigs, popcorn, and plums? Would you still love him?
Well, we’re going to find out soon either way, because Variety is reporting that Cumberbatch has signed on to play the Grinch in Illumination Entertainment’s new animated adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. This project has been in the works for several years, with Illumination hoping to move onto another Dr. Seuss adaptation after its Horton Hears A Who and The Lorax movies, but since then it started to really focus on the Minions and their proclivity for printing money. The new Grinch movie took a backseat to those little monsters, but now the project is finally moving forward.
Speaking of the Minions, Variety is also reporting that South Park’s Trey Parker will play the lead villain in Despicable Me 3. This will be Parker’s first time doing voice work for a project he didn’t help create, and he’ll apparently be playing “a former child star” named Balthazar Bratt. Despicable Me 3 will open on June 30, 2017, and How The Grinch Stole Christmas will debut in November of 2017.