The ending of the latest Minions film, The Rise Of Gru, has been altered for its release in China, social media users across the country have claimed.

If you don’t want to know how the film ends – either here or in China – look away now…

Censors have apparently included an addendum which states that villain Wild Knuckles is caught by police and serves 20 years in jail, according to posts shared on online platform Weibo.

Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, “returned to his family” and “his biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls”, screenshots of the film show.

However, the original version of the film ends with the thieving anti-heroes riding off together, Wild Knuckles having successfully faked his own death to trick the authorities.

It is the latest example of Chinese authorities changing a Hollywood film to make it what they deem to be more politically correct.

Earlier in 2022, Warner Bros confirmed that references to a gay relationship between male characters Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) were edited out of the latest Fantastic Beasts movie for the Chinese market.

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Viewers of a streaming platform also noticed last year that the ending of 1999 Fight Club had been changed. More spoilers coming up…

Instead of the protagonist and his alter ego detonating a set of skyscrapers, an on-screen script said police “rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding”.

However, the original was reinstated following a backlash.

Read more: Steve Carell on Minions: The Rise Of Gru

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China is not the only country to censor popular films.

In June, the Buzz Lightyear origin story film Lightyear, which features a kiss between two female characters, was banned in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries.

Writing about the new Minions film, DuSir, an online review publisher with 14.4 million followers on Weibo, pointed out that the Chinese version is a minute longer than the international release.

“It’s only us who need special guidance and care, for fear that a cartoon will ‘corrupt’ us,” DuSir wrote in an article published on Saturday.

Sky News has contacted US distributor Universal Pictures, as well as Huaxia Film Distribution Co and China Film Co, the film’s distributors in China, for comment.

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