Before the show's debut, it was revealed that Maul – Shadow Lord season 2 had been renewed. While viewers can rest assured that the stories of Maul, Devon (Gideon Adlon), and the rest of the surviving characters will continue, they need something else to watch during the hiatus that has some of the same attributes as the popular new Star Wars series. Fortunately, Netflix is delivering the right kind of movie to make the wait easier with the film Ray Gunn that is releasing on the streaming platform later in 2026.
Netflix’s Ray Gunn & Disney’s Maul – Shadow Lord Are Both Sci-Fi Noir
As part of the Star Wars universe, Maul – Shadow Lord is inherently science fiction, but it is also a noir story, much like George Lucas' Star Wars: Underworld was intended to be. Both in terms of the animation and the story itself, the show has a gritty feel to it. The protagonist, Maul, is not a hero, but is a cynical, ruthless individual initially pursued by a hardened police detective across the lawless criminal underworld of Janix, and there are many morally difficult choices that are made.
While it doesn't appear to be as gritty, the synopsis and first-look images of Netflix's Ray Gunn confirm that it is also an animated science-fiction noir story. The official logline is "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." Sam Rockwell voices the private eye, Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova, and it is directed and written by The Incredibles' Brad Bird.
Similar to Maul – Shadow Lord, Ray Gunn features a detective tasked with a difficult, murderous case in a city filled with aliens, humans, and big personalities. The movie will be leaning into even more classic noir elements, though, as Bird teases that "The film is a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the '40s...it's Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. I've been a fan of both of those sort of genres, and blending them together seemed fun, and a chance to play with a lot of very cinematic elements, and extreme characters."
Maul –Shadow Lord & Ray Gunn Are Pushing The Boundaries Of Sci-Fi Animation
Beyond both being sci-fi noir, Maul – Shadow Lord and Ray Gunn are creatively ambitious and are pushing against the status quo of sci-fi animation. As executive producer Athena Yvette Portillo explained to ScreenRant, the usual Star Wars animation was upgraded this time. This included a "painterly quality" via oil canvas map paintings that were shot and composited into the show, along with practical models and making character movements and fight sequences more fluid than ever before.
With Ray Gunn, Bird has shared that he is also trying to surpass what has been done in animation before and to reach those who typically only watch live-action shows and movies: "There’s a big chunk of people who don’t watch animation. That’s a group I’m anxious to persuade because it’s an amazing art form that is way too limited in people’s minds. Animation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told." Johansson described the animation as "extraordinary" and "a total realization of where Brad is currently on his artistic journey."
Between making a villainous character the protagonist, blending noir with science fiction, and a one-of-a-kind animation style, Maul – Shadow Lord does not stick to past boundaries of the Star Wars franchise. Ray Gunn's blend of the same genres in highly stylized animation makes it feel like the perfect successor, and as with Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, it has the potential to capture the attention of a wide range of audiences.
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Producers
Alex Schwartz, Brad Bird, Connie Nartonis Thompson, Dana Goldberg, David Ellison, Hannah Minghella, John Lasseter, Karen Rupert Toliver, Lisa Beroud
English (US) ·