SDCC 2026: Brad Bird Debuts New Footage for Ray Gunn During His ‘My Cinematic Journey’ Panel

Oscar-winning filmmaker Brad Bird was live in attendance for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con SDCC to showcase footage from his upcoming new CG-animated feature Ray Gunn, and also look back at his illustrious career. Bird’s Hall H “My Cinematic Journey” panel was easily one of the highlights of this year’s Comic-Con.

The panel was primarily a retrospective of Bird’s career, from The Simpsons to today. Collider’s Steve Weintraub moderated the event, providing a nice rundown and Q&A with Bird looking across the major points of his career. Bird provided many fascinating anecdotes of his career, including how his mentor in animation, the late Milt Kahl, impressed upon him the importance of exploring possibilities.

Bird shared some interesting history regarding his beloved Oscar-winning feature The Incredibles, and how the story changed significantly during production. Syndrome was originally a villain introduced early in the story, when the movie was more about villains finding out superheroes’ secret identities and attacking them at home, but he wasn’t the main villain.

However, eventually, The Incredibles changed its narrative, with Syndrome becoming the movie’s main villain. Bird said the change was inspired by the autobiography of Burt Ward, and how Ward bemoaned not being seen as a big of a star as Adam West in Batman. That inspired Bird to make a story about a sidekick who saw himself as being “wronged” by the hero, which transformed The Incredibles into the movie we know today, with Syndrome as the main villain.

He also spoke about his disappointment in the marketing of The Iron Giant. However, despite the movie’s commercial failure, it eventually became a cult classic, with it frequently being played in marathons during Thanksgiving, and the movie is now recognized as an animated masterpiece.

Bird also revealed he received criticism from colleagues for going to Pixar and “selling out” to CG animation. Bird explained that he started working at Pixar not because he was “selling out” to CG animation, but because Pixar protected the stories and visions of its filmmakers.

The director also spoke at length about Ratatouille, and the changes it underwent when he became the movie’s new director. Bird said when he came on board, Brian Dennehy, Ian Holm, and Lou Romano were already cast in their respective roles of Django, Skinner, and Linguine.

Ultimately, Bird wanted to make some changes in the cast, stating that he made the pitches for Patton Oswalt as Remy and also Peter O’Toole as Anton Ego. The rest, as they say, is history.

Oswalt also sent in a video question that was shown during the panel, and he asked about Bird potentially bringing his rich, vibrant worlds and storytelling to TV. Bird revealed that he’s actually contemplating doing his long-gestating 1906 project as a TV series, which I think could be a good idea.

Bird also spoke about the issues in getting 1906 off the ground. It’s clearly a big passion project for him, so hopefully it eventually comes to fruition in some form. Additionally, he shared a funny story about shooting the Burj Khalifa scene in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. He recalled getting scared when Tom Cruise smacked into one of the windows and fearing their main star had died. Filming in the building and prepping all the windows was also an ordeal.

Brad Bird Showcases New Feature Ray Gunn

Of course, the star attraction of the panel was Bird showcasing footage of his new movie, Ray Gunn, which was essentially the first seven minutes. Ray Gunn is a retro-style sci-fi/spy-thriller mash-up, or as Bird described, “Buck Rogers meets The Maltese Falcon.”

The opening sequence nicely showcases the vibrant retro-futuristic world Bird created for the movie. It appears like New York City, where humans and aliens intermix, much like Futurama. It looks like people can rent jetpacks to travel across the city. The detail of the world looks vast, elaborate, and imaginative.

As the sequence progresses, we see two characters infiltrating the office: the private detective Ray Gunn (Sam Rockwell) and his alien partner, Ira (Tom Waits). They appear to be investigating a case of alien smuggling or trafficking in an executive’s office. However, they are forced to hide when two other gumshoes break into the office.

The hulking multi-armed alien soon returns to her office and finds them and starts beating them up, which eventually reveals Ray Gunn and Ira. Gunn knows the woman, and they flirt before the fight continues. Ray puts a stop to her by turning on a freezing AC unit, which freezes her head in a block of ice. The other aliens escape, but Gunn makes sure to break out the culprit before she can suffocate. It establishes that Ray Gunn has a strong moral compass and heart of gold.

This movie looks utterly fantastic and is an instantly recognizable Brad Bird movie. You can see his fingerprints all over it, and the world-building looks incredible. The CG animation and production design also look incredible. My main concern is that this movie is debuting on streaming, so it will likely only have a small theatrical run. This looks like a movie that needs to be experienced for the first time on the big screen.

What’s Next for Brad Bird

Following the conclusion of the Ray Gunn footage, a video question was sent in by Bird’s longtime composer and collaborator Michael Giacchino, asking Bird what movie made him want to direct, and what The Incredibles 3 is about. Bird wouldn’t offer too many details about The Incredibles 3, other than that he’s writing the story and that it’s being directed by Pete Sohn. Bird also credited Disney’s version of The Jungle Book as the movie that made him want to be a director.

Additionally, Giacchino himself joined the panel after his video question was shown, and he shared some details about his own creative process for scoring a movie and how he likes to get in the characters’ emotional headspace when composing a score. He also asked Bird about who’s composing Ray Gunn, and Bird joked, “The ghost of Jerry Goldsmith.”

Bird also teased that he voices some characters in Ray Gunn, but he wouldn’t reveal who they are. He did a little bit of Edna Mode, and then clarified we won’t be hearing that voice in Ray Gunn.

Giacchino also teased that he’s got a couple projects in the works that he might direct soon. Viewers might recall that he directed the one-shot special, Werewolf by Night, for Marvel Studios.

Meanwhile, Bird revealed that he knows what his next project will be, stating that it’s something live-action with animation in it. Hopefully, we’ll find out more about what that project is soon.

SDCC 2026: Michael Giacchino teases he’s got a couple projects he might direct soon. Bird says he knows what he’s doing next but he won’t talk too much about it now. He says it’s something live action with animation in it. #BradBird #RayGunn #SDCC #ComicCon2026 pic.twitter.com/sz37LDUCoz

— Jeffrey Harris (@Wheeljack83) July 24, 2026

Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn looks like a can’t-miss animated event. The Skydance Animation feature will debut on Netflix on December 18.