"The Electric State" Is Getting a Video Game Prequel from Russo Brothers, Netflix

A prequel video game based on directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s upcoming Netflix movie “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.

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 movies, “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.”