Chris Pratt stars in a new Netflix movie, The Electric State, and the nostalgic sci-fi epic dropped in March 2025. The Electric State is directed by MCU veterans the Russo Brothers, marking their tenth feature film together and second original movie for Netflix. The film is based on the 2018 science fiction dystopian graphic novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, and is set in an alternate version of the 1990s where a robot joins forces with a young woman to find her missing brother.

Rights for the film were acquired back in 2017, and there was a long pre-production phase, with the Russos releasing Citadel, The Gray Man, and Cherry in the intervening years. News about The Electric State was slow to arrive, probably a symptom of how long it had been gestating. However, when the big-budget streaming film finally did arrive in the early months of 2025, it failed to live up to the expectations of such a blockbuster premise.

The Electric State Critical Reception

A Generally Reviled Netflix Original Movie

After many months of build-up and millions of dollars spent on the film project, The Electric State arrived with a terrific thud in March 2025. Scoring below 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, the Russo Brothers’ latest opus failed to move the needle with the critical establishment. IGN particularly noted that The Electric State feels like an amalgamation of better science fiction properties, while The Guardian called the film “soulless,” and “emotionally inert.” Though audience reviews are somewhat better, The Electric State is not one of Netflix’s most well-regarded originals.

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The Electric State Cast Details

Chris Pratt & Millie Bobby Brown Lead The Cast

Millie Bobbie Brown was the first cast member announced for The Electric State. She stars as the protagonist of the film, Michelle, an orphaned teenager, alongside Chris Pratt as a mysterious smuggler, Keats. Michelle Yeoh, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Brian Cox, and Jenny Slate joined the cast in August 2022. Cox and Slate voice robot characters while Woody Norman from C’mon C’mon plays Michelle’s lost brother, Christopher.

Yeoh was supposed to play a doctor character in the film but had to depart the movie due to scheduling conflicts (via Variety). Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) was selected to replace her. Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Billy Bob Thornton (The Gray Man, Fargo) voice Pratt’s robotic sidekick and a key figure from the Civil War, respectively, in The Electric State. Giancarlo Esposito rounds out the cast as an antagonist, Marshall, a robotic drone that hunts Michelle.

The confirmed cast of The Electric State includes:

Actor	The Electric State Role
Millie Bobbie Brown	Michelle
Chris Pratt	Keats
Ke Huy Quan	Dr. Amherst
Stanley Tucci	Ethan Skate
Woody Norman	Christopher
Martin Klebba	Herman
Giancarlo Esposito	Colonel Marshall Bradbury
Jason Alexander	Ted
Woody Harrelson	Mr. Peanut
Anthony Mackie	Herman
Brian Cox	Popfly
Jenny Slate	Penny Pal
Alan Tudyk	Cosmo
Billy Bob Thornton	Unknown
Hank Azaria	Perplexo
Colman Domingo	Wolfe
Rob Gronkowski	Blitz
Billy Gardell	Garbage Bot

• The Electric State Live-Action & Voice Cast And Character Guide

The Electric State Trailer

Watch The Trailers Below

Not long after the movie’s release date was announced, Netflix dropped an exciting trailer for The Electric State. The sneak-peek opens with Brown’s Michelle lamenting the world following a failed robot uprising and man’s increasing attachment to technology. Her brother goes missing, and she decides to set out on an epic quest to find him with the help of a smuggler named Keats (Pratt), and a few friendly bots. Along the way, Michelle and her team meet all kinds of resistance as both humans and robots seem determined to stop her.

Following up on the teaser released earlier in 2024, Netflix dropped a full-length trailer for The Electric State in December 2024. The trailer recaps the basic conflict at the heart of the story, and reveals that Pratt’s Keats was actually a veteran of the war against robots. Meanwhile, Michelle is desperate to find her missing brother, and is willing to enter dangerous territory to find him. The trailer also features an interview with Stanley Tucci’s Ethan Skate, who may be the big-bad of the entire movie.

The Electric State Story Details

An Ambiguous But Hopeful Conclusion

The ending of The Electric State was somewhat ambiguous like the graphic novel it’s based on, but that ambiguity also offered a ray of hope. Without explicitly setting up a sequel, the movie made it clear that Michelle’s journey might not be fully over, even as the grip that tech holds over society is loosened. Like any hero character, success comes with a lot of sacrifice, but she is left with a glimmer of hope that will likely be her motivation to move on in the future. A sequel is possible, but would undercut the emotional gains of its main characters.

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