Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn is expanding its voice cast with standout names like Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits, bringing major star power to the animated feature.
The project is being developed as a collaboration between Netflix and Skydance Animation, signaling a high-profile release backed by significant creative and production resources.
Ray Gunn represents a long-gestating passion project for Bird, one he has reportedly been shaping for decades. Set in “Metropia,” a vast, stylized metropolis envisioned through the lens of an alternate future imagined in 1939, the story blends retro aesthetics with futuristic world-building. At its core is Raymond Gunn, a private detective who becomes entangled in a complex and mysterious case involving aliens, murder, and a glamorous multimedia star named Venus Nova.
Narratively, Ray Gunn draws heavily from classic 1940s film noir traditions, think shadowy intrigue, morally ambiguous characters, and detective-driven storytelling, while fusing these elements with science fiction. Bird himself has described the project as a mix of The Maltese Falcon and Buck Rogers, highlighting its hybrid tone of hard-boiled mystery and imaginative sci-fi adventure.
Bird added, “There’s a big chunk of people who don’t watch animation. 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.”
The screenplay was co-written by Bird and Matthew Robbins, further shaping the film’s distinctive voice and narrative structure. On the production side, notable industry figures including John Lasseter are involved alongside the Skydance team, adding further weight to the project’s pedigree.
With its unique visual style, genre-blending premise, and high-caliber cast, Ray Gunn is positioned as an ambitious attempt to push animation beyond traditional boundaries. The film is currently slated for release sometime in 2026.
