The Russos are back with the Netflix sci-fi film ‘The Electric State,’ and it’s one of the oddest pairings yet

Few genres are capable of dancing across the entertainment spectrum quite as unreservedly as science fiction; for every meditative spacewalk that wears its Kubrick reverence on its sleeve, there’s a loud, green-screen enabled faceplant biding its time for a Snyder Cut.

Consider The Electric State, the graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag that exemplifies cybernetic, post-apocalyptic wanderlust. Furthermore, consider The Electric State, the film adaptation of the graphic novel that’s probably going to deviate from its source material and manifest as an action thriller; why else would you hire the Infinity War–Endgame brain trust of Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and the Russo brothers?

That’s our assumption, but what do we know for sure about this mysterious, stacked Netflix project?

What is The Electric State about?

Based on the aforementioned graphic novel of the same name, The Electric State is set in an alternate history in the United States in the 1990s, where a war between humans and robots have left parts of the country in ruins.

Michelle, a teenager who was orphaned on account of the war, meets a small, friendly robot and a strange survivor during her travels, and the three of them set out together in search of Michelle’s younger brother.

Who stars in The Electric State?

Who doesn’t star in the film would be a better question. Millie Bobby Brown spearheads the cast as Michelle, while Chris Pratt co-stars as Keats, who’s likely the third member of Michelle’s party. Also among The Electric State‘s ranks are Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Woody Norman, and Martin Klebba.

And that’s just the live-action cast; loaning their vocal talents to the effort are Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Anthony Mackie, Billy Bob Thornton, and Giancarlo Esposito as a character named Marshall, who we understand is the film’s antagonist.

As expected, the Russos direct a script from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, just like The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, and The Gray Man.

It bears pondering why this quartet, with their bombastic filmmaking tendencies, took so much interest in the slow landscape of The Electric State; will they make a severe turn away from the source material for the sake of operating in their bread and butter, or is this a matter of flexing some less-targeted storytelling muscles? It’s quite an omen, in any case.

When does The Electric State release?

At the time of writing, all we know is that The Electric State will be making its bow on Netflix sometime this year, which we’re already halfway through at this point. In other words, we won’t be waiting terribly long for the return of the Russos; here’s hoping they return to their MCU form rather than maintain their streaming-exclusive form (which has burdened us with the likes of The Gray Man and Cherry).