ALEX BROWN
Netflix released the second official trailer for Ray Gunn on November 12, giving fans a longer look at Brad Bird’s long-gestating animated sci-fi noir. The film stars Sam Rockwell as a hard-luck private eye, Scarlett Johansson as a pop star caught in a murder case, and Tom Waits as his alien partner. It opens in select theaters, including limited 70mm screenings, on December 4, 2026, and arrives on Netflix worldwide on December 18.
The new trailer leans into the mystery. Where the first footage introduced the city, this one is built around the idea that everyone Raymond Gunn meets might be hiding something. It’s a sharp pivot that tells you Netflix is selling this as a detective story first and a spectacle second.
Watch the Ray Gunn trailer 2
What is Ray Gunn about?
The story is set in Metropia, a towering city that looks like the future as people imagined it in 1939, complete with flying cars and mile-high buildings. Humans and aliens live side by side, and Raymond Gunn is described as the last human private detective in town. A case involving aliens, a murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova pulls him from Metropia’s glossy upper districts down into its underbelly.
Bird has pitched the movie for years with one line: it’s The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. That mix of hardboiled crime and pulpy space adventure is all over the trailer, from rain-slicked alleys to ray-gun shootouts.
Ray Gunn cast
- Sam Rockwell as Raymond Gunn
- Scarlett Johansson as Venus Nova
- Tom Waits as Eye-Ra, Gunn’s one-eyed alien partner
- Bobby Cannavale, Alan Tudyk, Matt Berry, Michelle Rodriguez
- Patton Oswalt, Aasif Mandvi, John Ratzenberger and more
Michael Giacchino, Bird’s go-to composer since The Incredibles, provides the score. Skydance Animation produced the film for Netflix.
Ray Gunn release date
- December 4, 2026: select theaters and limited 70mm engagements
- December 18, 2026: streaming worldwide on Netflix
The short theatrical window also keeps the film eligible for awards season, and Netflix’s choice of 70mm prints is an unusual flex for an animated release.
Why Ray Gunn matters
This is Bird’s first feature as director since Incredibles 2 in 2018, and it’s a project he says has lived in his head for more than 30 years. The idea dates back to a TV trailer for the 1989 film Peter Gunn, and the movie bounced through several studios before Skydance and Netflix finally made it happen.
It also arrives in a crowded December. Netflix is stacking big titles around the holidays, while theaters are dominated by Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, the same day Ray Gunn hits streaming. For animation fans who want something different from the usual family fare, it’s one of the most intriguing releases left this year. If you’re planning your month, our guide to the biggest movies left in 2026 has the full calendar.
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Sources: Netflix (YouTube), Netflix Tudum, FirstShowing