Netflix has set December 18, 2026 as the release date for Ray Gunn, Brad Bird's long-gestating animated noir mystery. The announcement came Wednesday at the Annecy International Film Festival, where Netflix also debuted new concept art and imagery from the production.
Set in Metropia, an alternate 1939 city shared by humans and aliens, the story follows Raymond Gunn, a small-time private investigator drawn into a case involving murder, extraterrestrials, and a multimedia star named Venus Nova whose scandals threaten everything around her. The concept began, according to Bird, with a mishearing: "What is it? It's Ray Gunn. And then I went, that's cool." The resulting film, in Bird's words, is "film noir and hard-boiled detective story, but it's got a lot more comedy and a lot more action than the average film noir."
Sam Rockwell voices Raymond Gunn. Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova. Tom Waits plays Eyera, Ray's alien sidekick and most trusted confidant. Michael Giacchino composed the score. The film is a Netflix and Skydance Animation production, produced by John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Lisa Beroud. Bird co-wrote the screenplay with Matthew Robbins.
The project spent years in development at Warner Bros. before Bird obtained it through turnaround and secured financing elsewhere. Bird has clarified he did not work on it continuously for thirty years, though the concept has remained with him throughout his career. A December 18 release puts Ray Gunn squarely in awards season, and the Hollywood Reporter has noted the film is already being positioned as an Oscar contender.