It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a feature film from Brad Bird, the filmmaker well known for flicks like The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. He hasn’t contributed to the cinematic landscape since Incredibles 2 was released in 2018, but that hiatus will soon come to an end. Netflix subscription-holders can look forward to Ray Gunn arriving to the 2026 movies schedule sometime in 2026, and I’m loving the first look and cast announcement for Bird’s new animated movie that just came in.
Hailing from Skydance Animation, Ray Gunn takes place Metropia, described in the official plot synopsis as a “a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939.” Sam Rockwell is voicing Raymond Gunn, a private detective who’s drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Tom Waits has also been cast as an alien named Eyera, and you can see him and Ray below:
Brad Bird described Ray Gunn in this announcement as a “blend of sci-fi and classic detective stories from the ‘40s… it's Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers.” He’s been thinking about this movie for “over 30 years,” and now that Ray Gunn is only months away from being released, he’s looking forward to once again showing how “[a]nimation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told.” Next we have Ray and another man admiring a poster of Venus Nova:
In her own statement, Scarlett Johansson (who previously starred with Sam Rockwell in Iron Man 2 and Jojo Rabbit) described working with Brad Bird on Ray Gunn as a “career milestone” and described the movie as “so uniquely special because it is a total realization of where Brad is currently on his artistic journey.” Finally, we have a gigantic hologram of Venus Nova welcoming people into the cool-looking, retrofuturistic Metropia:
It was revealed last October (via THR) that Sam Rockwell’s Ray Gunn also happens to be the last human detective in this world, so that undoubtedly adds even more pressure to solve the case that he gets wrapped up in. Brad Bird originally intended to make Ray Gunn in the 1990s, but the project was shelved when he signed on to make The Iron Giant following the Time Warner/Turner merger. Pixar mainstay John Ratzenberger who voiced The Underminer and Mustafa, respectively, in The Incredibles and Ratatouille, also shared last September (via Collider) that he’s begun recording dialogue for Ray Gunn.
Again, Ray Gunn doesn’t have a specific release date, but if it’s anything like Brad Bird’s previous movies, film lovers will be in for a treat when it arrives to the Netflix movie and TV schedule. In the meantime, break out your Disney+ subscription if you want to watch Bird’s Pixar movies, and The Iron Giant can currently be streamed for free on YouTube. He’s also writing and executive producing Incredibles 3, which opens on June 16, 2028.
