diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9de9d565b7..98a56f337f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,99 @@
 # Release Notes
 
-# Release Notes
+## Version 1.36.0 - 2025-05-22
+
+Features
+* Support Kubernetes version v1.33.1 [#20784](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20784)
+* New flag "-f" to allow passing a config file for addon configure command. [#20255](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20255)
+* vfkit: bump to Preferred driver on macOs [#20808](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20808)
+* vfkit: new network option "--network vment-shared' for vfkit driver [#20501](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20501)
+
+Bug Fixes:
+* fix bootpd check on macOS >= 15 [#20400](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20400)
+* fix bug in parsing proxies with dashes [#20648](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20648)
+* fix waiting for all pods having specified labels to be Ready [#20315](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20315)
+* fix: incorrect finalImg affecting downloading kic form github assets [#20316](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20316)
+* fix: reference missing files in schema (Closes #20752) [#20761](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20761)
+Improvements:
+* Additional checks for 9p support [#20288](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20288)
+* vfkit: Graceful shutdown on stop [#20504](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20504)
+* vfkit: More robust state management [#20506](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20506)
+* vfkit vmnet: support running without sudoers configuration [#20719](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20719)
+* Revert "fix --wait's failure to work on coredns pods" [#20313](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20313)
+
+Languages:
+* Add Indonesian translation [#20494](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20494)
+* Add more french translation [#20361](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20361)
+* Add more Korean translations [#20634](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20634)
+* Add more Chinese translations [#20543](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20543)[#20543](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20543)
+* fixed minor typo in german translation [#20546](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20546)
+Version Updates:
+* Addon cloud-spanner: Update cloud-spanner-emulator/emulator image from 1.5.28 to 1.5.34 [#20451](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20451) [#20539](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20539) [#20602](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20602)[#20623](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20623) [#20670](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20670) [#20704](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20704)[#20795](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20795)
+* Addon headlamp: Update headlamp-k8s/headlamp image from v0.26.0 to v0.28.0 [#20311](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20311)
+* Addon ingress: Update ingress-nginx/controller image from v1.11.3 to v1.12.2 [#20789](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20789)
+* Addon inspektor-gadget: Update inspektor-gadget image from v0.36.0 to v0.40.0 [#20325](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20325)[#20354](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20354)[#20512](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20512) [#20736](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20736)
+* Addon kong: Update kong image from 3.8.0 to 3.9.0 [#20151](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20151)[#20384](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20384) [#20728](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20728)
+* Addon kong: Update kong/kubernetes-ingress-controller image from 3.3.1 to 3.4.5 [#20319](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20319)[#20446](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20446)[#20788](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20788)
+* Addon kubevirt: Update bitnami/kubectl image from 1.31.3 to 1.33.1 [#20321](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20321)[#20349](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20349)[#20665](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20665)[#20731](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20731)[#20790](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20790)
+* Addon nvidia-device-plugin: Update nvidia/k8s-device-plugin image from v0.17.0 to v0.17.2 [#20786](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20786)[#20534](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20534)
+* Addon registry: Update kube-registry-proxy image from 0.0.8 to 0.0.9 [#20717](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20717)
+* Addon registry: Update registry image from 2.8.3 to 3.0.0 [#20242](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20242) [#20425](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20425)
+* Addon Volcano: Update volcano images from v1.10.0 to v1.11.2 [#20318](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20318)[#20616](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20616)[#20697](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20697)
+* CNI: Update cilium from v1.17.0 to v3.30.0 [#20419](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20419)  [#20390](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20390) [#20584](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20584) [#20734](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20734) [#20317](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20317)[#20383](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20383)[#20535](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20535) [#20637](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20637) [#20787](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20787)
+* CNI: Update flannel from v0.26.2 to v0.26.7 [#20385](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20385)[#20617](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20617) [#20639](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20639)
+* CNI: Update kindnetd from v20241108-5c6d2daf to v20250512-df8de77b [#20327](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20327)[#20427](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20427) [#20797](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20797)
+* HA (multi-control plane): Update kube-vip from v0.8.10 to v0.9.1 [#20638](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20638)[#20238](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20238)[#20598](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20598) [#20699](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20699)
+* Kicbase: Bump ubuntu:jammy from 20240911.1 to 20250126 [#20387](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20387)[#20718](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20718)
+* Kicbase/ISO: Update buildroot from 2023.02.9 to 2025.2 [#20720](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20720)
+* Kicbase/ISO: Update cni-plugins from v1.6.2 to v1.7.1 [#20771](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20771)
+* Kicbase/ISO: Update cri-dockerd from v0.3.15 to v0.4.0 [#20747](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20747)
+* Kicbase/ISO: Update docker from 27.4.0 to 28.0.4 [#20436](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20436) [#20523](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20523)[#20591](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20591)
+* Kicbase/ISO: Update runc from v1.2.3 to v1.3.0[#20433](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20433)[#20604](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20604) [#20764](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/pull/20764)
+
+For a more detailed changelog, including changes occurring in pre-release versions, see [CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md).
+
+Thank you to our contributors for this release!
+
+- 錦南路之花
+- Aaina Lohia
+- Anthony Holloman
+- cdw8431
+- Cosmic Oppai
+- Daniel Pepuho
+- Jeff MAURY
+- joaquimrocha
+- Kubernetes Prow Robot
+- Lan Liang
+- luchenhan
+- Medya Ghazizadeh
+- minikube-bot
+- Nir Soffer
+- Predrag Rogic
+- Sri Panyam
+- Sylvester Carolan
+- Tian
+- VerlorenerReisender
+- Victor Ubahakwe
+- zvdy
+
+Thank you to our PR reviewers for this release!
+
+- medyagh (64 comments)
+- nirs (23 comments)
+- cfergeau (12 comments)
+- prezha (8 comments)
+- afbjorklund (1 comments)
+
+Thank you to our triage members for this release!
+
+- Ritikaa96 (54 comments)
+- Ruchi1499 (43 comments)
+- dhairya-seth (31 comments)
+- afbjorklund (14 comments)
+- medyagh (13 comments)
+
+Check out our [contributions leaderboard](https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/contrib/leaderboard/v1.36.0/) for this release!
+
 
 ## Version 1.35.0 - 2025-01-15
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bbd70dea47..b44f1767e0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 # Bump these on release - and please check ISO_VERSION for correctness.
 VERSION_MAJOR ?= 1
-VERSION_MINOR ?= 35
+VERSION_MINOR ?= 36
 VERSION_BUILD ?= 0
 RAW_VERSION=$(VERSION_MAJOR).$(VERSION_MINOR).$(VERSION_BUILD)
 VERSION ?= v$(RAW_VERSION)