Netflix’s The Electric State is in some ways a departure from its inspiration, but it’s all for the greater good. Based on a beloved graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State tells the story of a teenager, Michelle, on a journey across post-apocalyptic America on a quest to find her brother. The catch is that the United States is populated by sentient robots, who have the power to help or hinder Michelle in huge ways.

The Electric State was directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the sibling duo behind some of the biggest box-office successes of all time. The pair got their start working on iconic comedies like Arrested Development and Community (no word on if they’re directing the Community movie), but quickly became known for blockbuster success with тιтles like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and, of course, Avengers: Endgame.

ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier spoke with Avengers: Doomsday directors Joe and Anthony Russo about their work on The Electric State. They discussed choosing a more family-friendly tone for their big-budget adaptation of Simon Stålenhag’s original graphic novel and how the setting of the movie helped tell a story that encouraged discourse around the healthy use of technology. Plus, the directors shared their process for making lifelike CG characters like those at the heart of the film.

The Russos’ Shift Away From The Graphic Novel’s Darker Tone Was Very Intentional

Simon Stålenhag, The Original Author, Was On Board

Part of what readers loved about The Electric State graphic novel was its tone. The story was told with minimal text, and a darker, bleaker approach than the film version would ultimately have. “It’s an interesting shift away to a more family appeal tone,” said Joe Russo, “we felt like the message about technology that was in the graphic novel was most important to be heard by younger audiences … so, it is a broad appeal movie. It is a family film.”

Making bold changes to the tone of a beloved property is a risky decision for any filmmaker, but the Russos did so with the blessing of the author. Joe Russo explained that Stålenhag was all for making his story more accessible: “[Stålenhag] said he created the book in a vacuum as a way for him to express how he felt about technology in the world, but he didn’t intend that to be the only expression of The Electric State. He felt it was really important that the story also reach his children.”

The Electric State’s ‘90s Setting Was Perfect For The Movie’s Themes

“That Is the Inflection Point”

The Electric State is set in an alternate, post-apocalyptic version of the 1990s, which the Russos believed was perfect for creating a modern allegory about technology. “What we liked about the nineties was it really felt like the birth of the digital age,” Anthony Russo said. He continued, “That is the inflection point where we, all of a sudden, had digital lives, [and where] our digital lives began growing. So, for us trying to tell a fable about [humanity’s] relationship to digital technology, we wanted to go back to that inflection point.”

The brothers also posited that the setting makes the movie’s message easier to swallow. Joe Russo said, “when you put things in period, it stabilizes them and makes it easier for you to digest something that may be more of a present theme.” His brother acknowledged that, with Anthony saying, “I think we’re all a little worn down by, like, ‘Geez, AI is going to take over the world. Oh, I look at my phone too much.’” Wrapping the issues in a fictional period story, Anthony Russo said, lessens the “knee-jerk reaction of ‘I don’t want to hear it’.”

The Russos Leveraged Their Avengers Experience To Make The Electric State Feel Real

“It Was A Dramatic Workload”

From the release of the first trailer, The Electric State’s visuals stood out as a potential highlight of the film. “It was a dramatic workload,” Joe Russo said on the subject, “because we knew that most of the characters were going to be CG.” Thankfully, the directors had had plenty of experience in the field: “It was the motion capture experience that we got through Thanos that really informed how we created these characters.”

The directors started on the robots’ designs very early in the process, Joe Russo revealed: “We made sure we ᴀssigned the proper motion capture actors to each of those characters, and that we used critical keyframes that were designed by our production designer, our DP, and our VFX teams that everyone had signed off on. That became these important templates for how scenes would be executed consistently … because a thousand artists will touch one scene over the life of the production, and you want to make sure everyone has a key frame to understand [the] lighting, tone, and feel.”

Also check out our interview with The Electric State stars Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, and Giancarlo Esposito.