A still from ‘Ray Gunn’
| Photo Credit: Netflix
Netflix has released the first trailer for Ray Gunn, Brad Bird’s long-awaited animated sci-fi noir starring Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits. Set in Metropia, an alternate future imagined through the visual language of 1939, the film follows private detective Raymond Gunn as he becomes entangled in a case involving murder, aliens and Venus Nova, a hugely famous multimedia star whose increasingly public scandals put her life at risk.
Rockwell voices Ray, a detective whose profession has largely been overtaken by technology. Tiny “pry bots” now perform much of the investigative work, leaving Ray and his one-eyed alien partner Eyera, voiced by Waits, among the few private investigators still working the old-fashioned way. Johansson voices Venus, whose celebrity draws Ray into a trail involving her inner circle, record-company executives and figures from Metropia’s criminal underworld.
Bird has described the film as “The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers,” combining the hard-boiled detective tradition with the pulp science fiction of the early 20th century. The trailer reflects that combination through Art Deco skyscrapers, flying cars, aliens in human clothes and a city whose polished futuristic surface conceals corruption and violence. Bird has said the film was conceived more than 30 years ago, before he made The Iron Giant, and has remained a project he wanted to bring to the screen throughout his career.
The voice cast also includes Alan Tudyk, Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Chernus, Kether Donohue, Michelle Rodriguez, Aasif Mandvi, Matt Jones, Kathryn Hunter, John Ratzenberger, Justin Peck and Patton Oswalt. Bird directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins, based on his original story, with Michael Giacchino composing the score.
Ray Gunn will premiere at the BFI London Film Festival before opening in select U.S. theatres, including limited 70mm engagements, on December 4. The film will begin streaming globally on Netflix on December 18.
Published – September 24, 2026 12:34 pm IST
