Ray Gunn

Background and development

Brad Bird wrote the original story for Ray Gunn as a mystery film set in an alternate future featuring "the sprawling, magnificent city of Metropia", and went on to develop the script with Matthew Robbins, who previously co-scribed with Bird on Batteries Not Included (1987).^[6] Originally, the film was intended to be produced by Turner Feature Animation in the 1990s, but it was shelved when Bird went on to direct The Iron Giant (1999) at Warner Bros. Feature Animation instead following Turner Broadcasting System's merger with Time Warner in 1996.^[7] Despite this, Bird did not forget about his Ray Gunn project, stating that he negotiated for the rights to the material and telling Warner Bros. that, "Either let's make it or let me try to make it somewhere else."^[2] Apparently, when Bird came to Pixar, Bird offered them Ray Gunn, but the studio chose to produce The Incredibles (2004) instead, and Ray Gunn was never produced by Pixar.^[8]

In 2021, Bird signed a deal with Skydance Animation to direct Ray Gunn.^[2] The project saw Bird re-team not only with John Lasseter, under whose leadership at Pixar he wrote and directed The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Incredibles 2 (2018),^[9] but also with David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, under whose leadership at Skydance Media he directed Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011);^[2] all four would serve as producers on the film.^[9] Bird also reassembled frequent collaborators including music composer Michael Giacchino, character designers Teddy Newton and Tony Fucile, editor Darren T. Holmes, and storyboard artist Jeffrey Lynch for the film.^[2] In February 2022, it was officially announced that Bird would revive the project after it became dormant for decades.^[9] That July, Bird described Ray Gunn as a more adult project in the noir genre, "sort of a detective film in an alternate future" that follows protagonist Raymond Gunn. He stated, "If you mashed up The Maltese Falcon with Buck Rogers, it might be something like that. But hopefully with a bit more action and funnier."^[2] In October 2023, it was reported that the film would be computer-animated instead of hand-drawn, and that the budget had been trimmed,^[10] which would later be revealed to be $150+ million.^[1] Following the announcement of Pixar's Incredibles 3 (2028) in August 2024, TheWrap reported that Ray Gunn was still in development, and that it would be released by Netflix in 2026.^[11] His commitment to the project would cause Bird to step away from directing his screenplay for Incredibles 3, choosing Peter Sohn to replace him as director.^[12] Skydance Animation Madrid's VP of Finance and Operations, Carolina Borreguero Sanz, confirmed in October 2025 that Ray Gunn would release after the studio's third film, Swapped, both in 2026.^[3] In April 2026, Lisa Beroud was revealed to be another producer on the film.^[4]

Animation and voice recording

Animation for the film was provided by Skydance Animation Madrid and Cinesite Animation^[13] under the supervision of Skydance. In September 2025, John Ratzenberger, a Pixar regular who previously voiced characters in each of Bird's films (the Underminer in the Incredibles films and Mustafa in Ratatouille),^[14] revealed during an appearance at FanX that he had begun voice recording for the film.^[15] In April 2026, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits were confirmed to have joined the cast.^[16][4]

Music

On July 27, 2022, Michael Giacchino, who had composed the music for each of Bird's films beginning with The Incredibles, was announced to compose the film's musical score.^[17]