A Ray Gunn The release date for Brad Bird’s long-awaited animated sci-fi film has been set before he gets his hands on Incredibles 3.

Bird wrote and directed the previous Incredibles films and will be involved in the third film in some capacity, but it seems he has another animation project in the works first.

The idea for Ray Gunn has been floating around for so long that it was actually conceived before Bird’s directorial debut, The Outer Space Giant. But according to The Wrap, Bird is now reportedly in the middle of filming the sci-fi noir detective film.

Initially touted as a traditional 2D film at Warner Bros., Ray Gunn was in limbo for a variety of reasons. Since Skydance reunited Pixar’s John Lasseter with Brad Bird, the film has now moved to that company and Netflix and is set for a 2026 release.

Ray Gunn is Brad Bird’s latest animated film

It is unknown if the plot has changed, but the original story was set in a futuristic world where aliens and humans live together. The last human private investigator is hired to investigate the fidelity of a well-known pop star. What we do know is that Bird swapped out the 2D animation for CG.

Although Bird has only made a handful of films in the last 25 years, his track record in animation is phenomenal. 1999’s The Giant from Space is a popular adaptation of the Ted Hughes novel, in which a giant metal machine befriends a nine-year-old boy and eventually finds its humanity by selflessly saving people from their own fears and prejudices.

Five years later, Bird directed the Pixar superhero hit The Incredibles, about a retired superhero settling into everyday life and tempted to make a comeback when he is given a mysterious, high-paying assignment.

A sequel followed 14 years later, but before that, Bird was already responsible for another Pixar gem: Ratatouille. The 2007 film is about a rat who wants to become a chef and finds a rather unusual way to make this dream come true.