‘Ray Gunn’ First Look: Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johannson Star in Brad Bird’s Long-Awaited Sci-Fi Noir

Skydance Animation produces the film, which will premiere on Netflix this year.

Thirty years ago, Brad Bird wrote the script for a mystery sci-fi film called “Ray Gunn,” which was set to be produced by Turner Feature Animation. The 1996 Turner/Time Warner merger caused the project to be shelved, and Bird instead made his first feature at Warner Bros. Feature Animation, 1999’s acclaimed “The Iron Giant.”

Now, “Ray Gunn” is finally seeing the light of day. Netflix has released first look images for the upcoming retro-futuristic animated film, and announced the starry voice cast for the future, with Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits joining the film.

Directed by Bird from a new script he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins, “Ray Gunn” is set in “Metropia,” a giant city described in the logline as “an alternate future as seen from 1939.” Rockwell plays the titular Raymond Gunn, a private eye drawn into a case involving murder, aliens, and Johansson’s multimedia star Venus Nova. Waits rounds out the cast as an alien named Eyera.

“Having the opportunity to collaborate with Brad Bird is a career milestone for me; I have loved his work my entire life,” Johansson said in a statement. “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.”

Since originally coming up with the idea for “Ray Gunn,” the project has become something of a white whale for Bird, who has been trying to make it on and off for the last few decades. He pitched the script to Pixar in the early 2000s, but it was rejected and he went on to direct “The Incredibles” instead. The project was officially revived in 2022, with Bird choosing to step down from directing the upcoming “Incredibles 3,” which he wrote the screenplay for, to make it; he was replaced on the sequel, which Pixar is set to release in June 2028, by “Elemental” director Peter Sohn.

“Ray Gunn has been in my mind for over 30 years.  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,” Bird said in a statement. “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.”

“Ray Gunn” is produced by Skydance Animation, the animation studio founded in 2017 by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and headed by John Lasseter, the Pixar veteran who executive-produced both “Incredibles” films. The movie will be Skydance’s fourth feature and second this year, after “Swapped” premieres in May. Bird, Lasseter, Ellison, Lisa Beroud, and Dana Goldberg produce the film.

“Ray Gunn” will release on Netflix in 2026. Take a look at the other first look photos below.