In the movie Despicable Me 3, when Gru refuses to go back to villainy again, his minions become angry with him. One minion named Mel, who was shown as a leader of the minions, started a heated discussion between himself and Gru, in minion's language. When that ended badly, Mel decided that the minions no longer need Gru, and they left Gru for the first time in their history. Then it showed Mel leading other minions to some other place.
Also in the film, Gru gets a call from minion named Mel before he goes down to announce to the minions that he and Lucy got fired from AVL.
Mel is never mentioned in any previous Despicable Me or Minions movie. He is mentioned in the third movie for the first time.
I have two questions:
How did he become leader of the minions?
Is there any significance of the name “Mel”? Is it used as a some kind of reference to either a historical event or an incident with a person?