Mission: Impossible Director’s New Scarlett Johansson Movie Sets Release Date

Mission: Impossible 4 director Brad Bird’s next action film with Scarlett Johansson has its release date set. The upcoming film will be Bird’s first feature in eight years.

When is the release date for Mission: Impossible director Brad Bird’s new movie with Scarlett Johansson?

Brad Bird’s upcoming animated film, Ray Gunn, will be released on December 18, 2026, on Netflix. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, and Tom Waits. Netflix also shared two new photos from the film alongside the synopsis during the announcement at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The film’s logline read, “In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.”

The images show Rockwell’s Gunn and Johansson’s Nova engaging in conversations in two different environments. The first photo shows the couple seated inside a car, while the second shows both in a lavish house.

Ray Gunn has been in the works for over 30 years. Bird had previously said that its story is a “blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the ’40s…it’s Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers.” The film will be Bird’s first animated feature outside of Pixar since 1999’s The Iron Giant. Since then, the filmmaker has directed two Incredibles movies, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Tomorrowland. Bird has won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature for the original Incredibles and Ratatouille. Bird’s commitment to Ray Gunn has led him to step away from directing Incredibles 3, which will now be helmed by Peter Sohn.

Ray Gunn is directed by Brad Bird, from a screenplay co-written by him and Matthew Robbins. The film is produced by John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Lisa Beroud. Ray Gunn is a Skydance Animation production.

Source: Comingsoon.net