Ever since leaving Marvel and forming AGBO, their own production company, the Russo Brothers, along with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have played exclusively in their own creative sandbox, making original films like “The Gray Man,” shepherding the “Extraction” franchise and now, their latest genre-mashup, “The Electric State” for Netflix.
Their latest, a sci-fi adventure movie teams up their “Avengers: Infinity War/’Endgame’” ensemble member Chris Pratt with “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobbie Brown and is set in an alternate, retro-futuristic version of the 1990s. “The Electric State” will be on Netflix on March 14, 2025, and we’ll have more on that soon.
But its directors Joe and Anthony Russos were on our The Discourse podcast to promote their new movie—and as a teaser to the full pod—spoke about their return to Marvel with “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” and a little bit about a mooted sequel to their ”The Gray Man” assassin action film starring Ryan Gosling.
As for returning to Marvel, the duo insisted their two busy with creating a story and then getting these mammoth movies off the ground to feel outside pressure from fans or expectations.
“We definitely try to—I mean, we did so many of those movies in a row that you sort of forget about the pressure,” Joe Russo remarked. “The job is so all-encompassing and so intense that you can’t really think about, ‘Well, what are people going to feel or think about this?’ All you can think about is, ‘Is this a good story that we want to tell or not? Why are we doing it?’”
“You’re trying to hit our anxiety buttons, right?” Anthony Russo quipped.
The reason for their return to Marvel after going their own way? The brothers suggest it was falling in love with the story they fell upon.
“So we’re exclusively focused on the storytelling right now,” Joe said. “And that’s the thing that brought us back— an idea for a story where we went, ‘That’s a really, really interesting story to tell.’”
“And now we’re just focused on executing that idea,” he continued. “Pressure and fear usually make for very poor decision-making. So hopefully we just stay calm and keep making the stories the way we like to see them.”
Asked about what they thought of the Multiverse Saga so far and whether it lacked the throughline of the previous Infinity Stone Saga, the brothers simply said the connective tissue that Marvel stories allow is always a great draw.
“Look, what you’re describing is like one of the most valuable aspects of the experience for us as fans and as storytellers,” Anthony Russo explained. “So, we lean into that in a strong way and we really feel like [the connective throughline is] one of the most unique things the MCU can do that other forms of cinematic storytelling can’t do.”
Anthony Russo also reiterated the idea of falling in love with the story concept they came up with and becoming reenergized to return to Marvel.
“Part of the reason why we became reactivated—like Joe was describing in terms of like falling in love with a story that we felt was powerful and needed to be told—is exactly what you’re describing is that there is a narrative through everything,” Anthony explained.
And as for the next two ‘Avengers’ movies? The Russo hopes to evoke the past Marvel success while forging new creative ground.
“Even that portion of the narrative that has been unfolding since the end of ‘Endgame,’ he continued. “We’re hopeful that we can pick up the story in a way that kind of honors what’s happened between now and then, but also moves it forward.”
And as for that talk about more ‘Gray Man’ films? Well, the Russos are busy with Marvel for the next few years, but they insist all creative parties are holding out to explore more.
“There’s still interest, yeah,” Anthony Russo explained. “There’s interest, [it’s] just the availability issues between Joe and I and Mr. Gosling and et cetera.”
“The Electric State” premieres on Netflix on March 14, 2025. More from this interview soon. – Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo.
