Ray Gunn (2026)

[BluBonnet]

Brad Bird's latest project is a CG animated feature, intended for release on Netflix in 2026.

Bird is in the middle of making “Ray Gunn,” his ambitious sci-fi detective story for Skydance and Netflix. The “Ray Gunn” script pre-dates “The Iron Giant” and was meant to be produced at Warner Bros. Animation, as a traditionally animated 2D feature. The project was briefly revived at Warner Bros., before Skydance head John Lasseter wooed Bird to the studio. “Ray Gunn” is now CG and is intended for release on Netflix in 2026.
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[Foggy]

Rolling onto Netflix like…

[MovieReviews331]

Been looking forward to this for a while now. Irritated that it is for Netflix. Tired of having to have subscriptions to watch movies these days.

[BluBonnet]

Netflix will probably give it an Oscar-qualifying week-long run, which means maybe about a dozen people will get to watch it theatrically

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Rolling onto Netflix like…

Seizure?

[Necrom-99]

Today Cinesite posted a page announcing it hiring for Ray Gunn. They confirmed that production is already underway and it seemingly has been for a substantial amount of time (essentially meaning that they can't turn back now). I have heard interviews with a couple of animators who were working on Ray Gun at Skydance Animation last year. One of them worked as a contractor for six months as they were taking a break from their own independent animated feature project. Another stated that Brad Bird briefly revived it as a hand drawn animated film at Warner Bros just before the pandemic. It apparently switched to CGI when it was brought over to Skydance Animation in mid to late 2021.

https://cinesite.com/ray-gunn-is-in-...n-at-cinesite/

[Bubbles-11]

Originally Posted by Necrom-99

Today Cinesite posted a page announcing it hiring for Ray Gunn. They confirmed that production is already underway and it seemingly has been for a substantial amount of time (essentially meaning that they can't turn back now). I have heard interviews with a couple of animators who were working on Ray Gun at Skydance Animation last year. One of them worked as a contractor for six months as they were taking a break from their own independent animated feature project. Another stated that Brad Bird briefly revived it as a hand drawn animated film at Warner Bros just before the pandemic. It apparently switched to CGI when it was brought over to Skydance Animation in mid to late 2021.

https://cinesite.com/ray-gunn-is-in-...n-at-cinesite/

Some very interesting implications about this being the studio's first film outsourced to another studio.. The previous two films they made (Luck and Spellbound) were made at the Madrid studio with support work from their Connecticut satellite studio (where Blue Sky's former offices were). Did their films grow to have such big budgets that they decided to cut costs DWA-style? or did Brad want animation production to be situated entirely in the USA/Canada?

[Necrom-99]

Originally Posted by Bubbles-11

Some very interesting implications about this being the studio's first film outsourced to another studio.. The previous two films they made (Luck and Spellbound) were made at the Madrid studio with support work from their Connecticut satellite studio (where Blue Sky's former offices were). Did their films grow to have such big budgets that they decided to cut costs DWA-style? or did Brad want animation production to be situated entirely in the USA/Canada?

I would imagine he wanted an entirely domestic production, as one of those earlier animator interviews suggested that, if I recall correctly. Also many people who are currently working on Ray Gunn have worked with Brad Bird for a long time. A number of them were with him while he worked on The Iron Giant and there seems to be some who observed Ray Gunn while it was being developed at Turner in the 1990s.

[BluBonnet]

I hope this is still on track to be released next year

[Necrom-99]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

I hope this is still on track to be released next year

It seems to be on track to release next year thankfully. One of the animators I referred to worked on Ray Gunn as a contractor from March to September of last year. Spellbound was also completed about a year ago (even though it was released in November), so this seems to be decently through the pipeline. Cinestar's site also lists the film's release date as 2026, and that was just posted today.

[Necrom-99]

We might get a glimpse of Ray Gunn at Annecy in a couple of weeks.

[JVM30]

I'm hoping this movie goes for that stylised animation style considering Brad Bird listed Buck Rogers and The Maltese Falcon as influences on the film and Cinesite did the animation for TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. It's probably going to be this and/or DreamWorks's Forgotten Island that is 2026's entry into the stylised animation line kicked off by the first Spider-verse movie.