Filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame”) always do things in a big way and their upcoming $320 million sci-fi feature, “The Electric State,” inspired by the 2018 graphic novel by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, has the distinction of being Netflix’s most expensive projects ever undertaken.
Check out the wondrous first trailer just unwrapped at New York Comic Con on Thursday afternoon during the mega-budget spectacle’s official panel presenting the film’s esteemed directors and producers, The Russo Brothers, “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” Chris Pratt, and “Stranger Things'” Millie Bobby Brown.
“I’m exhausted, that’s all I can say. We started working on this five years ago, so it’s been a long journey but it’s a real passion project and we’re very, very excited to bring it to audiences,” Joe Russo explained during the panel. “It’s massive in scale. We love telling very big stories and it’s the first time that we reunited with our key collaborators from ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ Markus and McFeely wrote the script. Jeff Ford, who edited all the movies we did with Marvel, is on this as editor. Alan Silvestri did the score. So this is hopefully as big as it gets for folks. If you’re hungry for a giant ambitious fantasy film, we’ve got one for you.”
For those unfamiliar with Stålenhag’s surreal digital paintings, his artistic worlds populated by retro rusting robots, battle drones, and discarded technology of former eras have been featured in several art books and graphic novels and were even transformed into the Prime Video anthology, “Tales From The Loop.”
Here’s the movie’s detailed description:
“Set in the aftermath of a robot uprising in an alternate version of the ’90s, ‘The Electric State’ follows an orphaned teenager who ventures across the American West with a cartoon-inspired robot, a smuggler, and his sidekick in search of her younger brother. The film stars Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Norman, with Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci. Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Hank Azaria, Colman Domingo and Alan Tudyk join the cast in voice roles. ‘The Electric State’ premieres globally on Netflix March 14, 2025.”
Pratt had obviously worked with The Russos on their two “Avengers” projects and simply couldn’t pass up the chance to be a part of their ambitious adaptation and collaborate with familiar filmmakers.
“I had intended to take a chunk of time off to be home, and then I read this script and I was like, ‘Nagh, f*** I guess I have to do this movie,'” Pratt told the audience. “It was so good and opportunities like this just don’t come around that often. To work with such an incredible team. We’d worked together before, not just The Russo Brothers, and I love you both so much, but also our AD department and like you’ve mentioned, the editor. I looked at the script. It was original IP. It’s adapted of course from an incredible graphic novel but it’s not the kind of thing that typically gets made to be a blockbuster style movie like this. It’s so original. it’s a huge swing.
“There’s this feel of an Amblin-style world that I loved, watching ‘The Goonies’ and other films from the ’80s and ’90s. But it’s contemporary and it has themes that are so resonant and important for today with regards to technology and humanity. It’s just a special film and when something comes along like this you have to do it.”
“The Electric State” comes exclusively to Netflix on March 14, 2025.
