Brad Bird Debuts New Footage From Ray Gunn and Talks About the Movie's Sci-Fi Noir Approach | Comic Con 2026

At San Diego Comic-Con, manager Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) revealed much astir his newest animated film, Ray Gunn, and debuting the opening 7 minutes of the upcoming Netflix release.

Bird was the taxable of a spotlight My Cinematic Journey SDCC sheet successful Hall H, hosted by Collider EIC Steven Weintraub. Bird recounted however his elevator transportation for the movie was "Buck Rogers meets The Maltese Falcon," describing it arsenic a movie astir "desperate characters successful an alternate future."

The opening scenes springiness america a look astatine the film's setting, a futuristic metropolis filled with giant, brilliantly lit towers and flying cars, but with an creation deco/1930s vibe to it. It's similar if Coruscant was mashed unneurotic with Batman: The Animated Series' Gotham City. We spot flying cars with creation deco plan elements, and businessmen successful suit and ties taking disconnected into the aerial connected pitchy packs, portion holding aged schoolhouse briefcases by the handle. Jetpacks are omnipresent, including connected operation workers, who usage them to interval astir the gathering they're moving on.

The brunt of the footage focused connected the lanky, one-eyed greenish alien known arsenic Eyera (voiced by Tom Waits) paying idiosyncratic disconnected to get a janitor's azygous to sneak into an bureau wherever it's revealed his trash tin really contains the rubric character, Ray Gunn himself (Sam Rockwell). There are shadows aplenty successful the noir-infused visuals of the square-jawed, sardonic leader Ray and his pal Eyera searching for concealed files, lone for a competing duo of aliens showing up to find them arsenic well... and for each 4 to beryllium interrupted by the large, hulking pistillate alien whose bureau they're breaking into.

It turns retired this woman and Ray cognize each other, arsenic her 4 other arms are revealed during a furious combat that culminates successful Ray redeeming himself by utilizing a frost ray instrumentality successful her bureau to signifier coagulated crystal astir her head. But erstwhile Eyera tries to get them to tally retired of determination earlier the cops arrive, Ray proves he's got a bully bosom by not letting her suffocate, insisting they enactment to smash unfastened the crystal first. It takes a clump of precise comic Looney Tunes-style bashes of her caput backmost and distant to ace it unfastened properly.

As helium had erstwhile helium spoke to IGN recently, Bird reiterated the precise agelong travel to get Ray Gunn made, noting it had taken 30 years. "I would person happily made it a agelong clip ago, but you request idiosyncratic to wage for it," Bird quipped. "I ever liked it and ever thought it would beryllium a bully movie."

Bird stressed the value of afloat gathering retired the film's setting, Metropia, noting the movie takes spot astir wholly successful this city, which helium described arsenic "sci-fi but precise urban." Bird and his animators worked to battalion the frames with details. "You tin fto your oculus drift and determination volition beryllium thing for it," helium said.

Ray Gunn is scored by Michael Giacchino, who has scored each of Bird's movies since The Incredibles. Giachinno made a astonishment quality astatine the panel, noting helium mixed galore elements into the music, saying it included "'50s sci-fi, '30s and '40s noir, immoderate flimsy jazz.”

He said that his large interest was that the people didn't dependable similar The Incredibles, but stressed that helium loves moving with Bird due to the fact that the manager likes to power things up "and takes a hard near crook with his stuff."

Added Giachinno, "At its core, [Ray Gunn has] a precise affectional people but it has a batch of action, a batch of fun, and hopefully is its ain thing."

Ray Gunn debuts connected Netflix connected December 18, 2026.

For much connected Brad Bird astatine SDCC, spot what helium had to accidental astir turning different movie he's developed for decades — a live-action task `about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake — into a miniseries instead.