Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn is lining up its final approach with a new trailer, poster, and five fresh images that expand the animated film’s retro-futurist world. The second preview puts more focus on the mystery at the center of the movie, while [the latest Ray Gunn preview package](https://bleedingcool.com/movies/ray-gunn-official-trailer-2-new-poster-and-5-new-images-released/) offers another look at Bird’s most ambitious original project in decades.
Set in the towering alternate-future metropolis of Metropia, the film follows private investigator Raymond Gunn, voiced by Sam Rockwell, as he takes on a case involving aliens, murder, and Venus Nova, a celebrity voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The city draws on Art Deco and pre-World War II visions of tomorrow, with airborne cars, jetpacks, immense skyscrapers, and humans living alongside extraterrestrials. Netflix describes the movie as a blend of science fiction and classic detective cinema. Netflix’s official first look frames Bird’s concept as The Maltese Falcon meeting Buck Rogers.
The new trailer also highlights the film’s unusual ensemble. Tom Waits voices Eyera, Ray’s one-eyed alien confidant, while the cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Alan Tudyk, Matt Berry, and Michelle Rodriguez. Rockwell’s hard-bitten investigator works in a world where machines have taken over much of the detective trade, leaving Ray with an increasingly old-fashioned job and a case that appears far too dangerous to ignore. The trailer is distributed by Netflix and Skydance Animation, with Bird writing alongside Matthew Robbins.
Ray Gunn has been a long-running passion project for Bird, who conceived the idea more than 30 years ago, before directing The Iron Giant. His later animated credits include The Incredibles and Ratatouille, but this film represents a return to an original story rather than another chapter in an established franchise. Bird has described the project as an attempt to push back against the assumption that animation is primarily a children’s medium, using noir, crime, science fiction, and adult-styled world-building as its foundation.
The release strategy gives the film both a theatrical showcase and a streaming launch. Ray Gunn is scheduled for select theaters on December 4, 2026, before arriving exclusively on Netflix on December 18. That timing makes the trailer rollout particularly important: the new footage needs to sell not only Bird’s distinctive animation, but also a sprawling original universe audiences cannot recognize from an existing comic, game, or franchise.
For fans of Bird’s earlier work, the appeal is the collision of familiar strengths—expressive character animation, kinetic action, and elaborate mechanical design—with a more unusual detective story. The second trailer suggests that Metropia itself will be as important as the investigation, giving Ray Gunn a chance to stand apart from the sequel-heavy animation calendar when it reaches screens this December.
