‘The Electric State’ cast and character guide: An A-list apocalypse

Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle

Millie Bobby Brown — or is it Millie Bonnie Brown? — rose to fame as the central enigma of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the wildly popular sci-fi series that will bow this year with its “blockbuster” fifth season. The role has scored her two Emmy nominations.

Brown has been a Netflix regular, having starred in the streamer’s Enola Holmes franchise and the 2024 film Damsel, but she’s also stared down kaiju in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) and its sequel Godzilla vs. Kong (2021).

In March 2025, the 21-year-old actress made headlines after criticizing the way her appearance is discussed in the media. “I think it’s necessary to speak up about this,” she said in a video posted to her Instagram. “I started in this industry when I was 10 years old. I grew up in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow up with me. Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time, like I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things season 1, and because I don’t, I’m now a target.”

In The Electric State, Brown “plays a character who has lost her family in the war but realizes her brother may still be alive,” per co-director Anthony Russo. “So she begins a cross-country road trip through the American West looking for her brother. Along the way, she encounters the character played by Chris Pratt, who becomes an ally to her in that quest. They become partners in crime, so to speak.”

Brown told EW she loves the film’s ’90s aesthetics. “I love the ’90s, so I was very excited,” she said. “I love the makeup, the hair, the style. I am obsessed with it.”

Also fun? Improvising with costar Pratt. “I typically stick to the script,” she told us. “So many times on set, we’d start the scene and just see where it would go. And I had to learn quickly to match Chris’ energy and reciprocate that, so it taught me a lot. He’s probably the funniest person I’ve ever met… it’s been really nice going toe-to-toe with him. Most days, I just laugh from start to finish.”

Chris Pratt as Keats

Chris Pratt began his career on the WB’s Everwood (2002–2006) before rising to fame as lovable lug Andy Dwyer on NBC’s Parks and Recreation (2009–2015). He reinvented himself as an action hero when he took on the role of Star-Lord in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy (2014–2023), establishing himself as an integral member of the MCU. A stalwart of several series, he also appeared in the Lego Movie franchise (2014–2019) and led the Jurassic World trilogy (2015–2022). As the voice of Mario in the super-successful The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), it’s likely he’s got another ongoing franchise on his hands.

“His character is someone who suffered trauma during the war, so he’s frozen in time,” co-director Joe Russo previously told EW. “He’s really a child of the early ’80s/late ’70s when he was happier, so that’s how he dresses, and his haircut is reflective of that as well. Everything in his life is reminiscent of a time prior to the one that he is in, a past that brought him more happiness than the present.”

Pratt, meanwhile, told us thatThe Electric State was “one of the best scripts” he had ever read. “It was wildly original…(and) so inventive, and so, so beautiful. To be able to join a project like this and to work with the Russo brothers again (after Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame), to work with Millie, of whom I’ve been a huge fan, was just something I had to do.”

Ke Huy Quan as Dr. Amherst

A child actor with roles in iconic films like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Goonies (1985), Ke Huy Quan soon faded into the background as a stunt choreographer before auspiciously resurfacing in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), the Daniels’ Oscar-winning multiverse comedy. His performance won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the first Vietnam-born actor to win the trophy.

An in-demand actor once again, Quan has since appeared in a number of films (Love Hurts, Kung-Fu Panda 4) and series (American Born Chinese, Loki). Most recently, he made a voice cameo in season 3 of The White Lotus. He’ll next star in the long-anticipated sequel to Zootopia (2016).

According to the Russos, Quan’s Dr. Amherst is a scientist with a curious connection “to the family tragedy that Millie’s character is dealing with.”

Giancarlo Esposito as Colonel Marshall Bradbury

A prolific actor with hundreds of credits to his name, Giancarlo Esposito became a household name as Gus Fring, one of the most memorable big bads on Breaking Bad (2009–2011) and Better Call Saul (2017–2022). His performance as Fring got him three Emmy nominations, and he nabbed two more as The Mandalorian‘s nefarious Moff Gideon. He’s since appeared in several blockbuster films (Captain America: Brave New World, Megalopolis) and beloved series (The Boys, Harley Quinn).

The Russos told us that Esposito’s Colonel Marshall Bradbury was a “fearsome robot fighter during the war who was responsible for running down a lot of rogue robots who were still at large after the war,” adding that his character has “a wonderful and surprising arc.”

Stanley Tucci as Ethan Skate

An actor, host, and cookbook author, Stanley Tucci has six Emmys and two Golden Globes under his belt, not to mention an Oscar nomination for his turn in The Lovely Bones (2009). After making his film debut in John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor (1985), the actor has worked with an impressive array of filmmakers, including Peter Jackson (The Lovely Bones), Woody Allen (Deconstructing Harry), Danny Boyle (A Life Less Ordinary), Alan J. Pakula (The Pelican Brief), Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition), and Steven Spielberg (The Terminal).

Of course, Tucci’s probably best known for playing Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games franchise and for his delicious turn as Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), not to mention his supporting turn in the Oscar-nominated Conclave (2024).

Tucci is no stranger to the Russos, having previously appeared in their Amazon Prime spy series Citadel. In fact, the brothers told EW that Tucci is one of their favorite actors of all time. His Ethan Skate, they explained, is a “brilliant scientist who created the technology that allowed humans to win the war against the robots.”

Anthony continued, “It’s that technology that then moves into peacetime, and that ends up causing some complications for humanity. The movie is then very much about how all of these characters deal with that complication.”

Jason Alexander as Ted

Jason Alexander made waves with memorable turns in Pretty Woman (1990) and Jacob’s Ladder (1990) before breaking out as Seinfeld‘s neurotic George Costanza (1989–1998), a once-in-a-lifetime role that landed him seven Primetime Emmy nominations and four Golden Globe nominations. (Truly a travesty he never won.)

After Seinfeld, Alexander’s attempts to lead a sitcom of his own never took off, but he remains a prolific actor in film, TV, and especially theater. He also works as a director, having helmed episodes of Franklin & Bash (2012), Mike & Molly (2012), and Young Sheldon (2023).

According to the Russos, Alexander’s Ted serves as a “corrupt foster parent” to Brown’s Michelle. “He is not the warmest, fuzziest character in the world. Most people are stuck in this technical, narcotic haze, as is he, so most of my interaction with her is as a robot,” he told The Hollywood Reporter of the character. “He is part of the reason she starts off on her journey. She can’t stay where she is.”

Alan Tudyk as Cosmo

Beloved by nerds the world over, Alan Tudyk is a prolific voice and live-action actor with roles in everything from Star Wars and Transformers to Marvel and DC projects. He also has cult cred, too, having starred in canceled-too-soon space western Firefly (2002–2003) and its accompanying film, Serenity (2005). Most recently, he contributed voices to Disney hits Wish (2023) and Moana 2 (2024). He’ll next star in James Gunn’s anticipated Superman.

Tudyk voices Cosmo in The Electric State, a robot inspired by a similarly-designed hero in Stålenhag’s graphic novel. Speaking with the New York Times, the Russos explained that, in the world of The Electric State, Cosmo was created to celebrate the 1955 opening of Disneyland. When we catch up with him, he’s one of Michelle’s closest companions.

“We wanted the character to be hard to access and decipher,” Anthony told the Times. “But we also had to have that robot be able to convey intention or emotion.”

Anthony Mackie as Herman

Before taking the shield from Chris Evans at the end of Endgame and setting the stage for Captain America: Brave New World, Anthony Mackie turned heads in projects like 8 Mile (2002), Half Nelson (2006), The Hurt Locker (2009), and Pain & Gain (2013). In 2014, he debuted in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the MCU’s Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon.

Mackie voices Herman, a robot best described as “frenemies” with Pratt’s Keats. Vanity Fair describes Herman as a “Russian nesting doll, able to hop into increasingly various-sized versions of himself.”

Woody Harrelson as Mr. Peanut

Woody Harrelson’s Emmy-winning turn as bartender Woody Boyd on Cheers (1985–1993) is the kind of role that usually gets an actor typecast. Harrelson pushed against that straight away, however — his early career is defined by challenging, boundary-pushing roles in films like White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Natural Born Killers (1994), and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), for which he was nominated for his first Best Actor Oscar.

Since then, he’s been nominated by the Academy two more times — for 2009’s The Messenger and 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri — and received Emmy nominations for his turns on Frasier (1999), Game Change (2012), and True Detective (2014). Throughout his long career, he’s also appeared in several blockbuster franchises, including The Hunger Games (2012–2015), Planet of the Apes (2017), and Venom (2018–2021).

Harrelson voices none other than Mr. Peanut, who, in the world of The Electric State, was a leader in the robot’s failed war. “Mr. Peanut is, in a lot of ways, the Atticus Finch or the Jimmy Carter of the robots,” co-director Joe Russo told EW. “He’s the most intelligent, the most progressive, the most humane. He has now secreted himself away in an area of the country called the Exclusion Zone, where any of the surviving robots were rounded up and put into (after the war). It’s a large-scale prison that covers several hundred square miles of the American Southwest.”

Brian Cox as Popfly

The brilliant Brian Cox, Hollywood’s funniest grump, enjoyed a hit of late-career success as Logan Roy, the monstrous patriarch leading HBO’s Succession. He’s been at this a long time, though, having won an Emmy in 2001 for his portrayal of Nazi commander Hermann Göring in Nuremberg.

His credits are too long to list, but he’s perhaps best known for his roles as Stryker in X2 (2003) and Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter (1986). Though it was Anthony Hopkins who won an Oscar for playing Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, there is no shortage of folks who will tell you that Cox’s turn is just as good.

There’s not much out there about Cox’s Popfly, but the robot’s name (and baseball-shaped head) indicate he’s a fan of America’s favorite pastime. Funny to cast an ornery Scot in that role, but, hey, we’re not complaining.

Jenny Slate as Penny Pal

After accidentally dropping an F-bomb in her very first sketch as a Saturday Night Live cast member, Jenny Slate found success with recurring roles on Bob’s Burgers (2012–present), Parks and Recreation (2013–2015), and Kroll Show (2013–2015), as well as an acclaimed performance in 2014’s Obvious Child. In 2021, Slate co-wrote and starred in Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, a feature continuation of the viral shorts and books she had previously made with her ex-husband Dean Fleischer Camp.

Slate plays Penny Pal, a robot that The New York Times describes as a “midcentury postal carrier.”

Colman Domingo as Wolfe

An actor, writer, and director, Colman Domingo was nominated for an Academy Award two years in a row for Rustin (2023) and Sing Sing (2024). He also received an Emmy for playing Ali, the Narcotics Anonymous sponsor of Zendaya’s Rue, on Euphoria (2019–present). Upcoming roles include Edgar Wright’s The Running Man and Steven Spielberg’s still-unnamed sci-fi movie, which is slated for 2026.

Domingo’s Wolfe is a robot — aside from that, we know nothing else.

Rob Gronkowski as Blitz

A four-time Super Bowl champion and routine NFL record-setter, Rob Gronkowski previously told EW he dreams of being an action hero. Until now, though, he’s mostly played variations on himself on TV (Family Guy, Entourage) and in films (80 For Brady, Good Burger 2).

The Electric State might just make his dreams come true, though perhaps not in the way he intended. Instead of sniping baddies and cracking wise like Jason Statham and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’ll be playing a robot named Blitz, who we’re guessing has some connection to the pigskin.