Brad Bird has easily made some of my favorite movies. From being behind a handful of childhood favorites like The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille to helming arguably the best Mission: Impossible movie, Ghost Protocol. But it’s been a good decade since we’ve seen a truly original idea from the writer/director. Thankfully, his longtime animated passion project Ray Gunn is officially on the 2026 movie schedule. However, as he told us, the road to getting big and bold ideas on the screen isn’t the same as it used to be.
Thirty-something years ago, Bird wrote the script for Ray Gunn, a neo-noir detective flick set in a utopian future. It wasn’t until a few years ago that we heard it was getting off the ground with Skydance Animation. Now, the movie, which looks incredibly imaginative and straight-up cool, is coming to those with a Netflix subscription. When I spoke with Bird hours before he took to San Diego Comic Con’s Hall H stage to talk about his “Cinematic Journey” across three decades, he said there's a distinct reason why he took the movie to the streaming studio. As he shared:
