Giancarlo Esposito, Anthony Mackie and Colman Domingo are heading to a future of cartoonish robots in the upcoming Netflix film The Electric State.

The teaser trailer below shows Esposito playing what appears to be an evil, or at least stern-looking, robot. Unlike the other robots we see in the trailer, which look like 1950s cartoons, Esposito’s robot features his face looking out through a television screen. Esposito’s bad-guy roles are often the most entertaining parts of the projects he’s in, and we expect no less from this character.

What is The Electric State about?

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, The Electric State is based on the book by Simon Stålenhag which tells the story of a dystopian version of 1997.

In this version of the late ’90s, robots are now a facet of life, and technology has run amok. Millie Bobby Brown stars as a girl who is on a journey with her robot companion to find her long-lost brother.

According to Netflix’s synopsis:

The Electric State is a spectacular adventure from the directors of Avengers: Endgame set in an alternate, retro-futuristic version of the 1990s. Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Enola Holmes, Damsel) stars as Michelle, an orphaned teenager navigating life in a society where sentient robots resembling cartoons and mascots, who once served peacefully among humans, now live in exile following a failed uprising. Everything Michelle thinks she knows about the world is upended one night when she’s visited by Cosmo, a sweet, mysterious robot who appears to be controlled by Christopher, Michelle’s genius younger brother whom she thought was dead. Determined to find the beloved sibling she thought she had lost, Michelle sets out across the American southwest with Cosmo, and soon finds herself reluctantly joining forces with Keats (Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World), a low-rent smuggler, and his wisecracking robot sidekick, Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie). As they venture into the Exclusion Zone, a walled-off corner in the desert where robots now exist on their own, Keats and Michelle find a strange, colorful group of new animatronic allies, and begin to learn that the forces behind Christopher’s disappearance are more sinister than they ever expected.

Who else stars in The Electric State?

Along with Brown, Pratt, Mackie, Esposito and Domingo, The Electric State also stars Jason Alexander, Ke Huy Quan, Woody Norman, Stanley Tucci, and the voices of Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Hank Azaria and Alan Tudyk.

When does The Electric State premiere?

The Electric State comes to Netflix March 14, 2025.