What did Brad Bird show from Ray Gunn?
Brad Bird screened the opening seven minutes of Ray Gunn during his My Cinematic Journey panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026.
As our sister site IGN Middle East reported from the Ray Gunn presentation, the footage introduced Metropia, a futuristic city of brightly illuminated towers, flying cars, art deco architecture, and businesspeople commuting by jetpack while carrying old-fashioned briefcases. Corporate dress codes survive the alternate future, apparently, even when gravity becomes optional.
The sequence follows the one-eyed alien Eyera, voiced by Tom Waits, as he infiltrates an office with Ray Gunn, voiced by Sam Rockwell, concealed inside a bin. Their search for secret files leads to an encounter with competing intruders and the office’s formidable owner, giving the film room for noir tension, action, and Looney Tunes-style physical comedy.
Bird said the project had taken 30 years to make and attributed the delay to finding someone willing to finance it. He had also discussed wanting to revive Ray Gunn during the Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol era, long before it became a scheduled Netflix film.
What kind of sci-fi film is Ray Gunn?
Ray Gunn combines retro science fiction, classic noir, action, and slapstick within a densely designed animated city.
Bird’s compact pitch is Buck Rogers meets The Maltese Falcon
, with what he calls desperate characters living in an alternate future. Nearly the entire film takes place in Metropia, which Bird describes as sci-fi but highly urban. He said the city was fully developed so viewers could let their eyes wander across frames packed with incidental detail.
The opening footage also establishes Ray as more than a square-jawed, sardonic archetype. His actions suggest a compassionate streak beneath the hard-boiled exterior, while Eyera appears rather more interested in escaping before the authorities arrive. It is a promising character contrast: one hero has a moral code, and the other has correctly noticed that the police are coming.
Michael Giacchino’s score draws on 1950s science fiction, 1930s and 1940s noir, and jazz. Giacchino said he wanted the music to avoid sounding like The Incredibles, despite his long collaboration with Bird, and described the result as emotional, action-heavy, and fun.
When is Ray Gunn coming to Netflix?
Ray Gunn is scheduled for a global Netflix debut on 18 December 2026.
The supplied reporting confirms the worldwide streaming date but does not separately confirm placement in Netflix’s UAE catalogue. UAE subscribers should therefore wait for a local Netflix listing before treating 18 December as a confirmed regional release date — calendar enthusiasm is welcome, permanent ink can wait.
The confirmed global release still gives Bird’s long-running project a firm destination. Based on the footage shown, Ray Gunn is leaning into its unusual combination of detective-story mood, elaborate futuristic world-building, and broad animated comedy rather than smoothing those ingredients into something more conventional. After 30 years of development, playing it safe would have been the strangest choice of all.
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