Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn reunites him with former Pixar boss John Lasseter, and he’s not dodging the questions
The Incredibles director spent nearly 30 years trying to make his sci-fi noir Ray Gunn. It’s finally arriving on Netflix in December, made at the studio run by John Lasseter, the former Pixar boss who left Disney under a cloud. Here’s the film, Bird’s history, and what he says about the reunion.
Brad Bird has been trying to make one movie for almost 30 years. It’s finally happening, and the story of how is tangled up with one of animation’s most complicated figures.
The film is Ray Gunn, and it lands on Netflix on December 18, 2026. It’s made at Skydance Animation, the studio run by John Lasseter, the former Pixar chief who left Disney in 2018 after misconduct allegations. Bird, asked directly about reuniting with him, didn’t dodge.
Who Brad Bird is
If the name isn’t familiar, his movies definitely are.
Bird is one of the most acclaimed directors in animation history. He made The Iron Giant, the beloved 1999 film that became a cult classic. Then he moved to Pixar and directed The Incredibles and Ratatouille, both of which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
He’s also worked in live action, directing Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Disney’s Tomorrowland. In short, when Bird makes something, people pay attention. He’s a four-time Oscar winner with a reputation as a genuine craftsman.
The movie he waited 30 years to make
Ray Gunn is Bird’s white whale, the project he never let go of.
He first wrote it back in the 1990s, when it was set up at Turner Feature Animation. A corporate merger shelved it, and Bird went off to make The Iron Giant instead. But he never stopped thinking about it, trying on and off for decades to get it made.
The film is a sci-fi detective story, described as The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. It’s set in “Metropia,” a giant city imagined as a 1939 vision of the future, where humans and aliens live side by side. Sam Rockwell voices Ray Gunn, the last human private eye, with Scarlett Johansson as a pop star caught in a deadly scandal and Tom Waits as Ray’s alien sidekick. It’s also Skydance’s first PG-13 animated feature, a more adult swing than most animated films.
Why it’s finally happening now
The reason it’s getting made comes down to where Bird took it.
When Bird got the green light in 2021, he didn’t go to Pixar, his old home. He brought Ray Gunn to Skydance Animation, the studio founded by David Ellison and headed by John Lasseter. The project bounced around, even surviving Apple walking away from a Skydance deal, before Netflix stepped in to fund its hefty $150 million budget.
Bird also brought his people. The Ray Gunn crew is stacked with longtime collaborators from his Pixar and Iron Giant days, composer Michael Giacchino, editor Darren T. Holmes, storyboard artist Jeffrey Lynch, and voice actor John Ratzenberger, who’s appeared in every one of Bird’s films. The old band, in other words, got back together.
The complicated part: John Lasseter
Here’s the piece that makes this more than a normal movie story.
John Lasseter is an animation legend, he co-founded Pixar and directed the original Toy Story. But in 2018, he left Pixar and Disney after acknowledging “missteps” with staff, following allegations of unwanted hugging and other inappropriate physical contact with employees. It was one of the higher-profile departures of that era.
His career, though, didn’t end. Within a couple of years, Lasseter was hired to run Skydance Animation, where he’s now built a slate of films, including Ray Gunn. And notably, plenty of his former colleagues have chosen to work with him again, Bird being the most prominent. That fact, that respected creators keep returning to work with him, is part of his story now.
What Bird actually said about it
Bird didn’t avoid the subject, which is worth noting.
In an interview with What’s on Netflix at the Annecy animation festival, he was asked directly whether, “given his reputation in the industry and the allegations against him,” he had any pause about working with Lasseter again. Bird’s answer:
“A lot of these stories are more complicated, and there are many different ways to discuss it. I think everyone just wants to make a good movie. I think the most important thing to focus on is the value of storytelling, and that’s what I’ve tried to stay focused on.”
On the decision to team up again, Bird called it “serendipitous,” noting he’d worked with Skydance on Mission: Impossible and with Lasseter across all his Pixar films, so it was “really just finding a good home for the movie.”
The bigger picture
So what do you make of all this?
It’s a real tension, and different people will land in different places. On one hand, the allegations against Lasseter were serious, and some felt his quick return to a top job sent the wrong message. On the other, he was never charged with a crime, he acknowledged missteps and stepped away, and a lot of talented people have decided to keep collaborating with him.
What’s not really in dispute is that Lasseter’s departure from Disney didn’t end his run in animation. He landed at a well-funded studio, kept making movies, and drew back respected names like Brad Bird. Whether you see that as a fair second act or an uncomfortable one is a judgment call, and a reasonable person could go either way.
For now, the takeaway for animation fans is simpler: a film Brad Bird spent three decades chasing is finally arriving, made with the collaborators he trusts most. Ray Gunn hits Netflix December 18. The story of how it got made is complicated, exactly as Bird said, but the movie itself is the kind of original, ambitious swing that animation doesn’t get often enough.
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Hat Tips:
What’s on Netflix (June 26, 2026), the Annecy interview, verified for Bird’s exact quotes about working with Lasseter again, the “serendipitous” framing, and the allegations question as posed
IndieWire and mxdwn (April–June 2026), verified for the Ray Gunn premise, the December 18 Netflix release, the $150M budget, the Rockwell/Johansson/Waits cast, and the returning collaborators (Giacchino, Holmes, Lynch, Ratzenberger)
Wikipedia and World of Reel (2025–2026), verified for Bird’s filmography, the 30-year Ray Gunn development history, the Turner/Warner origins, the Apple-to-Netflix shift, and Skydance Animation’s founding under David Ellison and John Lasseter
Contemporary reporting on Lasseter’s 2018 Disney/Pixar departure, verified for the misconduct allegations, his acknowledgment of “missteps,” and his subsequent hiring at Skydance Animation
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.