Background and development
Brad Bird wrote the original story for Ray Gunn as a mystery film set in an alternate future featuring "the sprawling, magnificent city of Metropia", and went on to develop the script with Matthew Robbins, who previously co-scribed with Bird on Batteries Not Included (1987). According to Bird, the inspiration for Ray Gunn came from viewing a trailer for the then-upcoming 1989 television film Peter Gunn which led to Bird coming up with a character with a pun name for raygun who would go on film noir inspired adventures in a retrofuturist world inspired by the 1930s and 1940s. He also mentions the B-52s' song "Planet Claire" as an inspiration: "The first time I heard the song ... I thought it was cover version of Henry Mancini's famous Peter Gunn theme song. Then, I realized that it sounded like a 1950s sci-fi movie. So, I thought that's not Peter Gunn, it's Ray Gunn. So, then I figured here's [a] detective's name."
Bird stated his love of film noir was a major reason for why he had such passion for the project and cited The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Chinatown as influences for both story and style and even consulted with Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne on how to craft a compelling mystery. Bird had previously attempted a similar noir themed animated project called The Spirit with co-writer Jerry Rees for producer Gary Kurtz during the early 1980s, which would have been adapted from the comic strip character of the same name by Will Eisner, but a lack of financier confidence saw the project abandoned. Despite abandoning The Spirit, Bird would base a lot of the characterization of the titular Ray Gunn on the character of The Spirit.
Originally, Ray Gunn was intended to be produced by Turner Feature Animation in the 1990s, but it was shelved when Bird went on to direct The Iron Giant (1999) at Warner Bros. Feature Animation instead following Turner Broadcasting System's merger with Time Warner in 1996. Despite this, Bird did not forget about his Ray Gunn project, stating that he negotiated for the rights to the material and telling Warner Bros. that, "Either let's make it or let me try to make it somewhere else."
In 2021, Bird signed a deal with Skydance Animation to direct Ray Gunn. Bird worked again with John Lasseter, under whose leadership at Pixar he wrote and directed The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Incredibles 2 (2018), and David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, under whose leadership at Skydance Media he directed Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011); all four were producers on Ray Gunn. Bird also reassembled collaborators including the composer Michael Giacchino, character designers Teddy Newton and Tony Fucile, editor Darren T. Holmes, and storyboard artist Jeffrey Lynch. In February 2022, it was officially announced that Bird would revive the project after it became dormant for decades. That July, Bird described Ray Gunn as a more adult project in the noir genre, "sort of a detective film in an alternate future" that follows protagonist Raymond Gunn. He stated, "If you mashed up The Maltese Falcon with Buck Rogers, it might be something like that. But hopefully with a bit more action and funnier." Because of his desire to target a slightly older audience, Bird did not consider Pixar a potential candidate as he felt Ray Gunn would not fit its sensibilities.
In October 2023, it was reported that Ray Gunn would be computer-animated instead of hand-drawn as originally conceived, and that the budget had been trimmed, which would later be revealed to be $150+ million. Following the announcement of Pixar's Incredibles 3 (2028) in August 2024, TheWrap reported that Ray Gunn was still in development, and that it would be released by Netflix in 2026. His commitment to the project would cause Bird to step away from directing his screenplay for Incredibles 3, choosing Peter Sohn to replace him as director. Skydance Animation Madrid's VP of Finance and Operations, Carolina Borreguero Sanz, confirmed in October 2025 that Ray Gunn would release after the studio's third film, Swapped, both in 2026. In April 2026, Lisa Beroud was announced as another producer.
Animation and voice recording
Assets were provided by Skydance Animation Madrid, while the Rigging, Layout, Animation, CFX, Lighting, Rendering and Compositing were produced by Cinesite under the supervision of Skydance. In September 2025, John Ratzenberger, who previously voiced characters in each of Bird's Pixar films (the Underminer in the Incredibles films and Mustafa the waiter in Ratatouille), revealed during an appearance at FanX that he had begun voice recording.
In April 2026, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits were confirmed to have joined the cast. Waits was the first person cast and suggested Rockwell for Ray Gunn during his first recording session. Following a screening of the first seven minutes at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, TheWrap reported that Patton Oswalt, who voiced the lead character Remy in Ratatouille, voices a hologram. In September 2026, Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Jones, Aasif Mandvi, Alan Tudyk, Kether Donohue, Michael Chernus, Justin Peck, and Bird himself were revealed as a part of the voice cast.
