Posted in: Movies, Netflix | Tagged: brad bird, ray gunn

Ray Gunn: First Look At Brad Bird's New Animated Feature At Netflix

We have three first look images and information about Ray Gunn, the new animated film written and directed by the legendary Brad Bird.

Brad Bird is a legend in animation, and it's a crime that we haven't seen him direct or write any features in nearly a decade. However, Netflix has been courting some of the best and the brightest in animation, and after absolutely killing it last year with KPop Demon Hunters, it is bringing us a new animated movie, written and directed by Bird, called Ray Gunn.

In a press release sent out today, Netflix announced that Ray Gunn will stream later this year, and its voice cast includes Sam Rockwell ("Raymond Gunn"), Scarlett Johansson ("Venus Nova"), and Tom Waits ("Eyera"). The logline for the film reads as: "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." We also got three images from the film, and there are some serious Blade Runner meets Dick Tracy vibes here.

Ray Gunn Is Directed And Written By Brad Bird, So We're Already In

"Ray Gunn has been in my mind for over 30 years," Bird said in a statement. "The film is a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the '40s…it's Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. I've been a fan of both of those sort of genres, and blending them together seemed fun, and a chance to play with a lot of very cinematic elements, and extreme characters."

"Having the opportunity to collaborate with Brad Bird is a career milestone for me; I have loved his work my entire life," Johansson said. "This project is so uniquely special because it is a total realization of where Brad is currently on his artistic journey. I can't wait for audiences to see this extraordinary animation that looks like nothing else out there."

We are also massive Brad Bird fans here at Bleeding Cool, and seeing another project from him and one that looks this unique is already so awesome, so it's not surprising that the voice cast has a bunch of people who jumped at the chance to work with him.

John Lasseter, Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison, and Dana Goldberg for Skydance Animation will serve as producers. Bird is directing and writing with a screenplay by Bird and Matthew Robbins. At the time of writing, Ray Gunn doesn't have an official release date, but it will stream to Netflix sometime in 2026.

Animation as a medium is still looked down on, no matter how many times it proves everyone wrong. Unlike last year, when there were so few original animated features being released, 2026 has quite a few, both in theaters and on streaming. For Bird, the people who look down on animation, the ones who think 'this is just a thing for kids,' they are the ones Bird is looking to convert into believers with Ray Gunn. "There's a big chunk of people who don't watch animation," Bird said. "That's a group I'm anxious to persuade because it's an amazing art form that is way too limited in people's minds. Animation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told."

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