Are the Minions the most famous original characters of 21st century cinema? 

Other candidates:

Frozen’s Elsa? 

Fast and Furious’ Dominic Toretto? 

John Wick? 

Saw’s Jigsaw?

Avatar’s Na’vi? 

Napoleon Dynamite? 

Superbad’s Mclovin? 

And so many of the Pixar characters: Nemo, Dory, Wall-E, The Incredibles, etc. etc. etc.