Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn is finally happening: cast, release date and the animated neo-noir fans have been waiting for
After years in the shadows, Brad Bird’s animated neo-noir Ray Gunn nears its Netflix debut, fronted by Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, and Tom Waits.
Brad Bird is finally rolling out the passion project he has been circling for ages, and it sounds like pure Bird: big-hearted, technically showy, and not exactly playing by the usual animated rules. It is called "Ray Gunn," it is headed to Netflix, and yes, the cast is stacked.
So what is "Ray Gunn"?
It is Bird doing a neon- soaked, retro-future detective story. Think a sprawling Art Deco mega-city, Metropia, built as if someone in 1939 tried to imagine the future: flying cars, jetpacks, skyscrapers for days, and a gnarly push-pull between humans and machines. In the middle of that, private eye Raymond Gunn takes what looks like a simple job and promptly lands in a mess of aliens, murder, and tabloid-grade scandal tied to a massively famous multimedia star. It leans hard into classic noir but then layers in sci-fi weirdness until it becomes its own thing. Very Bird.
The cast (and why that matters)
- Sam Rockwell is Raymond 'Ray' Gunn, a small-time PI trying to keep his footing in a city that is increasingly run by machines.
- Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova, a world-conquering pop idol whose glossy image is cracking under a pile of scandals. She is orbiting the story’s central mystery.
- Tom Waits is Eyera, Ray’s one-eyed alien sidekick. If that visual just clicked in your head, you get the vibe.
Bird has always built his movies around performance as much as spectacle ("The Iron Giant," "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille"), and this lineup screams voice-first filmmaking. The tone here is unusual for a mainstream animated release, and the star-driven approach looks very intentional.
Release plan
"Ray Gunn" hits Netflix on December 18. It has been a decades-long journey to get this one made, with the project evolving through multiple iterations before landing at the streamer. Netflix has been leaning into filmmaker-led animation, and this is positioned as one of their big swings.
Why this feels like Bird going for it
It is a bold blend: noir plotting, retro-futurist design, big sci-fi swings, and a character focus that lets the voice work set the emotional tempo. Also, Tom Waits as a one-eyed alien? That is the kind of delightful left turn you do not get if you are playing it safe.