In ‘The Electric State,’ Jolting a Robot to Life
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‘The Electric State’ Prequel Video Game Set From Russo Brothers, Netflix (EXCLUSIVE)
By Jennifer Maas
A prequel video game based on directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s upcoming Netflix film “The Electric State” will launch a few days after the movie hits the streamer on March 14.
Set in the aftermath of a robot uprising in an alternate version of the ’90s, “The Electric State” follows orphaned teenager Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) who ventures across the American West with cartoon-inspired robot Cosmo, low-rent smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his wisecracking robot sidekick Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie) in search of her younger brother, Chris.
A prequel to “The Electric State,” the mobile game “The Electric State: Kid Cosmo” is described as a “bite-sized adventure puzzle game” that focuses on Michelle and Chris. Per Netflix and the Russos’ media company AGBO, “This narrative-driven game takes place before the events of the movie and spans five years, blending gameplay with emotional storytelling to create an immersive experience.”
“The Electric State: Kid Cosmo” will launch March 18 on iOS and Android. The game is free to play but available only to Netflix subscribers.
Watch the trailer for “The Electric State” video game via the video above.
Based on the graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag with a screenplay written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, “The Electric State” stars Brown, Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Norman, Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci, as well as Woody Harrelson, Mackie, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Hank Azaria, Colman Domingo and Alan Tudyk in voice roles.
The Russos, who direct the film and produce, helped Netflix develop the “Electric State” mobile game through their media company AGBO, which is expanding its digital experiences and gaming slate amid the recent hire of Nifty Games vet Pete Wanat as president of interactive technology.
Their plans include at least three large-scale transmedia projects based on original ideas, but they aren’t going to say no to the idea of developing games tied to their upcoming Marvel films, “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars,” or their ongoing Amazon TV franchise, “Citadel.”
“We would definitely be open to it,” Joe Russo said in an interview with Variety alongside his brother and business partner Anthony Russo. “Right now, what we’re doing is creating new IP. At AGBO, we want to tell new stories. We want to tell new stories with new characters and new worlds that people haven’t seen before. So Anthony and I and Donald are working together to build out new worlds. And we have three that we’re currently working on that the intention is, for every world we build to have the scale and depth of a “Star Wars” universe, but in a different genre. And then we’ll build materials around those new worlds. We’ll tell stories in different ways using different media in those worlds.”
Here, the Russos speak with Variety about “The Electric State: Kid Cosmo,” their growing gaming business and upcoming Marvel and Netflix projects.
Anthony Russo: We have an amazing team here at AGBO that is very tuned in to gaming, and they sort of played lead on the development of the game. So by the time that Joe and I entered the picture on the game, it was an already quite settled, in terms of concept. They had such a compelling, cool concept that there we didn’t really get into issues of, what else could we do?
Anthony Russo: It does expand upon the relationship that the lead characters have in the movie, Michelle and her brother Chris. So it does get into a part of their relationship that we don’t follow in the film, that kind of predates the film, but also post-dates the film as well. And the game is able to explore the relationship in more depth. We certainly explore the relationship very thoroughly in the movie, but there’s just a limit in a two-hour medium to how much ground you can cover, in terms of story. So the game does hold something very special in terms of like, who these people are, what their relationship is to one another, and how it evolves and grows over time. And I think people will find it very relatable. It’s a wonderful, complicated brother-sister relationship in everything that that entails.
Anthony Russo: We don’t have anything planned right now, but we love an evolving narrative with gaming. So it’s something we’re always open to and something we’re always considering. But the fact that “The Electric State” can be explored through different medium — the type of story that it is and the type of experience that it is, can be explored in different ways — that’s something very important to us as storytellers, because it represents how we like to engage with our favorite material and our favorite stories. So we are exploring many new ways of bringing the experience of “The Electric State” to audiences and gamers.
Anthony Russo: My default is, I can’t tease any — but it is a very important part of our agenda here, moving forward, and a lot of our new storytelling is going to be working hand in hand with our gaming efforts. I can say that.
Anthony Russo: It’s the same way we approach our filmmaking. We always call ourselves sort of film agnostic, which is, basically, we value all the different forms you can express yourself in linear cinema storytelling. Same is true with games. Every idea has a different way that it can best be explored and best be brought to audiences or gamers for an experience. So we really like to tailor everything to the creative idea that we’re exploring, evolving and building upon, in terms of how we find an expression for it.
It’s a good question, because one of our beliefs, in terms of how we craft a relationship between these two different mediums, is that you can enter it from either direction. So we try to make it, if you’ve entered through the movie, you have something additive as you start to explore the game. And if you enter through the game, you have something additive in the other direction, as well. So I don’t want to get into any specifics, but there’s definitely new experiences to be had, depending on which direction you flow into it.
Joe Russo: We have a new partner at the company who is one of the greatest game developers in history, Donald Mustard, he’s the creator of “Fortnite,” and he’s come in now to work with us on building out what we think the future of storytelling could be, which is, some hybrid between linear and virtual and gaming. And we’re really interested in new ways to tell stories using technology. And so the three of us together are trying to explore and ideate around what opportunities there could be over the next decade using new tools and new technology to tell stories and can we make it can we make it true transmedia, where the same assets that we’re using for CG in movies is also the same assets that are in the game, that are also the same assets in a virtual experience. And that’s the mission of AGBO currently, at the moment.
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Where did the concept for “Kid Cosmo” come from as you were making “The Electric State” film?
Is the prequel storyline in the game canon to the plot in the film?
Are there any updates planned or additional content coming to the game?
Can you tease additional gaming projects you have in the works with Netflix or elsewhere?
Do you see yourselves focusing more on mobile gaming, VR, PC, AAA titles — what do you want to explore most?
Are there specific details people will appreciate more in the prequel game if they watch the movie first before they play it, or vice versa?
There’s more of Amazon’s “Citadel” coming, you’ve got multiple Marvel projects — how do plan to focus on building out the gaming business at AGBO and where are you going to slot in the time among those existing projects?
Cleveland’s Russo Brothers on the making of ‘The Electric State,’ the movie before their Marvel return
Joe Russo, left, and Anthony Russo arrive at the premiere of “The Electric State” on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Look closely during the opening moments of “The Electric State,” the new sci-fi adventure from Cleveland-born directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and you’ll see a familiar sight. The Plain Dealer makes a cameo with a headline declaring the start of a war against the robots. It’s a subtle shout out to their hometown by the brothers, who’ve never forgotten where they come from.
“We grew up with a real work ethic and that kind of tough-nosed Cleveland attitude,” Joe said. “That’s probably helped us more than anything in the business, that stick-to-itiveness.”
That “Cleveland ethos,” as Joe calls it, served them well in the production of their latest film. Premiering March 14 on Netflix, “The Electric State” is epic filmmaking, packed with big ideas, cutting-edge visual effects and an emotional story.
Based on the graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag, the film takes place in the aftermath of a robot rebellion. The machines, tired of being exploited by humans, fought back for their freedom. Humanity won the battle but at a cost, becoming addicted to a new technology developed by the sinister Sentre Technologies, led by the brilliant but ruthless Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Their invention is the Neurocaster, a VR-like helmet that links people’s minds to mechanized drone bodies. Originally designed to defeat the robots, Sentre repurposed the tech for consumer use after the war, trapping people in a digital dreamland, while the surviving robots were locked away in an internment camp.
“The thing that spoke to us immediately was humanity’s relationship to technology and the sort of complexity and danger inherent in that relationship,” Anthony said. “That issue is so timely right now. The youth, particularly, are struggling with it, perhaps even more than adults.”
The story follows Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), a teenage orphan who receives an unexpected visit from a curious Kid Cosmos robot, her younger brother’s favorite cartoon character. It reveals that her brother, Christopher, a prodigy believed to have died during the war, may still be alive. Determined to find him, Michelle teams up with a soldier-turned-smuggler (Chris Pratt) and his wisecracking, shape-shifting droid sidekick (Anthony Mackie). The trio ventures deep into the heavily guarded Robot Exclusion Zone, known as “The Ex,” in the vast American Southwest.
The Electric State. (L to R) Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) , Cosmo (voiced by Alan Tudyk), Keats (Chris Pratt) and Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie) in The Electric State. ™/© 2024 Netflix. Used with permission™/© 2024 Netflix. Used with permission.
“There’s something very emotionally powerful in this idea of a family that was separated by war, where a sister is going on a quest through this broken landscape to find her brother, who she hopes is still alive,” Anthony added.
In the Ex, they encounter a band of robot freedom fighters that are more like the Audio-Animatronic characters from a Disneyland ride rather than something out of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Among them are a promotional Mr. Peanut bot (Woody Harrelson), a postal carrier android named Penny Pal (Jenny Slate), and PopFly (Brian Cox), an old baseball-pitching machine. Turns out, they’re not the evil machines the war made them out to be. They just want the same things as everyone else: freedom, dignity and connection.
“They’re the opposite of ‘The Terminator,’” Anthony explained. “There’s an element of human innocence in these robots … That’s really what they represent in the movie.”
Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie), PopFly (voiced by Brian Cox), Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson), Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), Penny Pal (voiced by Jenny Slate) and Keats (Chris Pratt) in The Electric State. ™/© 2024 Netflix. Used with permission™/© 2024 Netflix. Used with permission.
That contrast between the humanity in machines and the inhumanity in humans is seen in the film’s antagonists. Besides Tucci’s Skate, Michelle also faces threats from Colonel Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito), a prolific robot hunter, and her Neurocaster-addicted foster father, Leo (Jason Alexander). Colman Domingo and Ke Huy Quan round out the star-studded cast.
“It’s unbelievable even to us that we could collect such an amazing array of talented actors,” Anthony said. “It really gives you an amazing asset in terms of how you create story and where you can take it.”
Bringing the film’s post-apocalyptic, alternate 1990s to the screen was no small feat. Many of the main characters, including several leads, are entirely computer-generated. The Russos send them on a high-stakes, post-apocalyptic road trip that builds to a spectacular battle sequence, all inspired by Stålenhag’s original artwork.
“This is as big of a CG movie as we’ve ever made,” said Joe, who, along with Anthony, has directed four Marvel films, including the last two “Avengers” movies. “The challenge is that you have to find a way to translate a performance to the other actors on set so they’re reacting properly in scenes. And then you have to translate that performance to an audience. That takes a team effort.”
It’s a huge swing for the Russo Brothers. The result may turn out to be divisive, but this much is certain: “The Electric State” is unlike anything else in their filmography— a dazzling, visually inventive sci-fi adventure wrapped in cautionary tale about technology and what it means to be human.
“Technology is pervasive, it touches all aspects of our lives,” Joe said. “The most important theme in the movie is to stay connected to the people around you.”
The film marks the end of the Russos’ six-year break from Marvel. After spending that time working on passion projects like “Cherry” and “The Gray Man,” and building up their production company, AGBO, by launching streaming franchises such as “Extraction” and “Citadel,” the brothers are headed back to the MCU. Their next project is “Avengers: Doomsday,” the first of back-to-back “Avengers” movies featuring Robert Downey Jr.‘s return to the franchise.
“We’ve had a great experience over the last few years … We weren’t anticipating coming back,” Joe said. “ The reason we did is that we found a way into a story that we thought was really compelling, worth telling and complementary to the work we did with them.
“Marvel is this grand experiment that will probably only come along once in movie-making history. We felt like the opportunity was too good to pass up,” he said.
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“The Electric State” is rated PG-13 and has a runtime of 2 hours, 8 minutes. The film premieres on Netflix on March 14.
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