The Electric State: Everything We Know about the new Russo Brothers movie

Anthony and Joe Russo, the Russo Brothers, have directed some of the biggest movies of all time, with their film Avengers: Endgame coming in second place just behind James Cameron’s Avatar… but that hasn’t made it any easier to get their sci-fi adventure film The Electric State out into the world. The project was first announced back in 2017 and experienced multiple ups, downs, and behind-the-scenes shake-ups on its way to production, with filming beginning in 2022 and wrapping in early 2023. Reshoots followed in 2024. Now The Electric State is finally be ready to make its way out into the world, so we figured it was time to put together a list of Everything We Know About The Electric State:

SOURCE MATERIAL

The story of this film begins in July of 2017, when Free League launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a new narrative artbook from acclaimed artist and author Simon Stålenhag – a book called The Electric State. Through a Facebook post, this book caught the attention of screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who have worked with the Russo brothers on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and The Gray Man. McFeely is continuing the collaboration on the upcoming films Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. And they weren’t the only ones who became interested in it. At least four studios and numerous producers and directors were pursuing the adaptation rights, kicking off “a heated bidding war” that the Russo brothers ended up winning. In December of 2017, it was announced that Russos would be producing a film adaptation of The Electric State, with the script being written by Markus and McFeely.

Stålenhag’s book had the following description: In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car approaches the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to be unraveling ever faster as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

The film also has an alternative 1990s setting, where AI has existed since the ’50s. A war broke out when the robots gained sentience and demanded equal rights. The film picks up 5 years after the war. The Russos have admitted that the book was so massive, they had to streamline the story. They did try to bring the art of the book into the look of the film, while basing it on the world Stålenhag had created, much like the Fallout TV series is set in the world of the video games but isn’t a direct adaptation. They have also made it a tribute to the ’90s, with a bunch of references to things from the era.

Angela Russo-Otstot, the Creative Chief for the Russo brothers’ production company AGBO (and she also happens to be their sister), told The Hollywood Reporter that the film is “a really interesting exploration of a world where service robots live alongside humans. Within their time performing specific services for humans, the robots start to realize that they may want something more than the purpose they [were made] for, and the humans begin to fear this. So, eventually, a conflict plays out. There’s a war between the humans and the robots, and the humans leverage technology to win, and they take all of the robots and banish them into an exclusion zone in the middle of a desert wasteland in the center of the U.S. But it’s a global conflict as well. So there are other stories and narratives that can play out in different countries around the world, but we witness the U.S. story in this film.” The writers are said to have “built out a really rich mythology. There was an existing mythology in the book, but they expanded upon it.“

Russo-Otstot also mentioned that the robots “have a real nostalgia to them.” 

DIRECTORS

When the Russos first secured the rights to Stålenhag’s book, they were too busy working on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame to direct the film themselves, so they tapped Andy Muschietti, who had just had massive success with his first It movie, to take the helm. But Muschietti had to make It: Chapter Two first… and by the time he was finished with that Stephen King adaptation, he had been offered the chance to direct The Flash for Warner Bros. and DC. So while he focused on making a superhero movie of his own, the Russos decided they would direct The Electric State after all. They just had to get the action thriller The Gray Man made for Netflix first. This is why it took five years for The Electric State to start filming: all of the directors that have been attached to it were too busy to make it.

In addition to directing the film, the Russos produced it with Mike Larocca, Chris Castaldi, and Patrick Newall. Markus and McFeely serve as executive producers with Russo-Otstot, Jake Aust, Geoff Haley, and Jeff Ford.

The Russos have said that they aimed to make the movie in a very Robert Zemeckis style, which is why they got Alan Silvestri to make the score unique to the film like his score for Back to the Future. (Which they accurately describe as “the perfect film.”)

CAST

Mille Bobby Brown of Stranger Things signed on to star in the film at the end of 2020, taking on the role of the teenager mentioned in the book description. She’s said to be “a young woman traveling across the country after a civil war between humanity and the robots that once served them spirals out of control. While searching for her missing brother, Brown’s character meets a mysterious smuggler.” That smuggler is played by Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy). Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) plays an antagonist called the Marshall, who operates a robotic drone remotely and is tasked with hunting down the robot traveling with Brown’s character on her quest. Ke Huy Quan (The Goonies) plays a doctor Brown’s character is desperate to find. Quan’s Everything Everywhere All At Once co-star Michelle Yeoh was once attached to play the character, but had to drop out due to scheduling issues.

Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade) provide the voices for robot characters. Mackie’s robot is a sidekick to the smuggler played by Pratt, while Thornton’s robot is a key figure in the civil war. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada), Brian Cox (X-Men 2), Martin Klebba (the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon), Jenny Slate (It Ends with Us), and Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) are also in the cast. Woody Harrelson (Zombieland) plays a robot that was inspired by Mr. Peanut. Russo-Otstot said, “I remember when we had to approach Hormel to ask permission to do this. We were like: ‘It has to be Mr. Peanut. We have to make this work.’ And fortunately, it did work out.“

Pratt has said that he based his character on a neighbor that he had when he was growing up. This guy, who was older and looked like David Lee Roth, was one of those high school dudes who liked to take the younger kids out and get them in trouble. Pratt has also said that he’s a fan of the graphic novel. He felt The Electric State was more unique than other comic adaptations and that it’s something that may not happen again, considering the novel is so massive and complex, so it could be his “last opportunity to be in a big movie like this.” He was planning to take a break, but went against that when he read the script and it moved him to tears.

Brown took the project because she admired the Russos and actually had the chance to visit them on the set of Avengers: Endgame. While working on the film, she endeavored to make her character as close to Drew Barrymore as possible.

RELEASE

The Electric State was set up at Universal in 2020, by which time Muschietti had stepped back into an executive producer role while the Russos took the helm. The plan was for the film to get a theatrical release, but then Universal passed it over to Netflix, where the project was overseen by Nick Nesbitt. So, while it may end up getting some theatrical play, this is going to primarily be a streaming release. The film is expected to start streaming on Netflix on March 14th. Here’s the teaser trailer:

In the build-up to the release, the Motion Picture Association ratings board has revealed that they’ve given the film a PG-13 rating for sci-fi violence/action, language and some thematic material.

And that’s everything we know about The Electric State at this time. Are you looking forward to this film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.