Brad Bird’s Long-Awaited ‘Ray Gunn’ Drops Its First Clip Ahead of Its Netflix Debut
Few animated projects have had a journey as long and winding as Brad Bird’s ‘Ray Gunn’. The film has been percolating in the director’s mind for more than 30 years, since even before ‘The Iron Giant’, and in all that time the fundamental concept has never changed.
Its road to the screen was full of detours. Bird and Matthew Robbins originally wrote the script back in 1996, and the movie went into development at Turner Animation at Warner Bros. In February 2022, it was announced that Bird would revive ‘Ray Gunn’ for Skydance Animation after it had sat dormant for decades.
Now audiences are finally getting a real taste of the finished film. Netflix has released the first clip from ‘Ray Gunn’, a short scene of 2 characters riding through the city at night, ahead of its December 18 streaming debut. The official logline reads: “In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.”
The world Bird has built looks like a love letter to classic detective stories. Metropia is a dazzling retrofuturistic city where humans and aliens live side by side, flying cars speed through the skies and buildings stretch a mile high, but behind the Art Deco sheen is a grittier reality of murder and corruption.
The hero is a bit of a relic. With much of a private detective’s legwork now handled by tiny “pry bots,” Ray and his cyclopean alien partner Eye-Ra are among the last investigators still working the old-fashioned way. Bird has said the film calls back to the movies he grew up loving, including Bogart detective films, ‘Out of the Past’ and the worlds of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade.
First clip from ‘RAY GUNN’, directed by Brad Bird (‘The Incredibles’). The film follows a private detective who is drawn into a case involving aliens & murder in the alternate futuristic city Metropia. Releasing December 18 on Netflix. https://t.co/PE0Cryy0WV
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 6, 2026
The cast is as starry as the city’s skyline. Sam Rockwell voices Raymond Gunn and Tom Waits plays Eye-Ra, while Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova. Matt Berry and John Ratzenberger are among 12 additional cast members who joined the film.
The creative team is just as impressive. Bird directs from his own original story and a screenplay he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins, with John Lasseter, Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg producing for Skydance Animation. Michael Giacchino composed the music.
Welcome to the future. From the director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille comes RAY GUNN, starring Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits. In select theaters December 4 and on Netflix December 18. https://t.co/4r2rtjCC8v
— Netflix (@netflix) September 23, 2026
The director has been clear about how he hopes fans will experience his passion project. After its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, ‘Ray Gunn’ hits select theaters, including limited 70mm screens, on December 4 before streaming on Netflix December 18.
That big-screen run clearly matters to him. “I want them to see the image as big as they can, because we put in all the details, and if you see it on a phone or something, you’re not going to see any of that,” Bird told TheWrap. He even used 70mm lenses that were “spherical but still widescreen” to capture the grandeur of the wider frame.
The theatrical plan reportedly wasn’t easy to secure. Earlier this year, the film was said to be at the center of a tug-of-war between its creative team and Netflix, with Bird’s camp pushing for a significant theatrical release, including an IMAX run.
The film also marks a long-awaited comeback. It’s been 8 years since Bird directed an animated movie, with 2018’s ‘Incredibles 2’. Early reactions have been mixed, with Screen Daily describing it as stylish but unwieldy after its London premiere.
Bird remains passionate about pushing the medium beyond expectations. He has said that animation is too fun and interesting a medium to limit the kinds of stories it can tell, and ‘Ray Gunn’ looks like his boldest attempt yet to prove it.
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