Netflix shares first look at ‘The Electric State’
Even though the film isn’t premiering on Netflix until March, 2025, it isn’t too early to suggest that The Electric State stands a very good chance of becoming one of the streaming service’s most-watched original movies ever, based entirely on the talent involved on either side of the camera.
The latest from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo reunites them with their favoured Marvel Cinematic Universe screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, a quartet that combined to drive their four superhero blockbusters to almost $7 billion at the box office.
The sibling filmmakers were also responsible for the espionage epic The Gray Man, which ranks as one of the platform’s top-viewed films of all time. Headlining the cast is Millie Bobby Brown, who’s probably the single biggest in-house star the company has at its disposal.
After all, both of the Enola Holmes flicks and fantasy adventure Damsel cracked the all-time top ten for viewership following their respective releases, and that’s without even mentioning her status as one of the focal points of Stranger Things, which is arguably Netflix’s flagship original series.
Big names always tend to translate into bumper viewing figures on the streamer, too, and The Electric State is stuffed to the gunnels in that regard. Joining Brown in the cast are Chris Pratt, Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, and Giancarlo Esposito, with voice roles for Brian Cox, Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Billy Bob Thornton, and more.
Inspired by the graphic novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State takes place in an alternate vision of mid-1990s America, with Brown’s orphaned teenager Michelle teaming up with Pratt’s eccentric drifter Keats and Mackie’s robot Herman to traverse the country in search of her missing younger brother.
A high-concept and star-stuffed genre film from the most commercially successful directing duo in cinema history, fronted by a homegrown star who can always be relied upon to power anything bearing her name to massive success on Netflix, is about as bulletproof a combination as it gets, with The Electric State nailed on to be a monster hit when it premieres.
Admittedly, a lot can change in five months, and there’s still no sign of a trailer, but looking at the components involved, there’s surely no outcome other than another winner from Russos and Brown. Does that mean it’ll be any good? That’s beside the point, with history having made it abundantly clear that Netflix’s exclusive blockbusters aren’t obligated to bask in the warm glow of critical acclaim in order to strike a chord with subscribers.