12 years since The Hunger Games, star Stanley Tucci compares that dystopian future to the one in his new Netflix sci-fi movie The Electric State

It’s been 12 years since Stanley Tucci first played Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games and almost 10 since Katniss Everdeen ended the games in Mockingjay – Part 2. 

A decade on, the prolific actor/director is set to traverse a very different kind of dystopian world in The Electric State, a new Netflix saga that reunites Tucci with directors the Russo Brothers (best known for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) following their work together on Prime Video’s Citadel. 

The Electric State stars Millie Bobby Brown as a young woman named Michelle who’s looking for her brother in an alternate version of the ’90s that was once ravaged by a robot uprising. Tucci plays Ethan Skate, a morally ambiguous inventor whose work seemed to play a key role in the devastation that unfolded.  

Speaking with GamesRadar+ at MCM Comic Con 2024, Tucci reflected on how the dystopian future of The Hunger Games compares to the apocalyptic past depicted in his new film, The Electric State.

“They’re both very dark, although the Hunger Games is more evidently dark immediately, whereas [The Electric State] is more subtle. You’re just not quite sure what’s right and what’s wrong until the very end. Whereas the Hunger Games is pretty clear at the beginning, that everything is really bad, really wrong. Here it’s more vague and more subtle.”

Co-director Joe Russo sheds some more light on this gray area that Tucci’s character, Ethan Skate, operates in. “These are not easy questions, right? Stanley’s character exemplifies that more than anybody in the movie. He’s a very complicated person who is at times emotional, at times brilliant, at times mean, at times selfish. He’s invented incredible things that are going to advance people’s lives, but also could destroy them.” 

(Image credit: Netflix)

Tucci isn’t the only familiar face who has returned to work with the Russo Brothers again on this movie. Marvel’s Chris Pratt and Anthony Mackie are in the cast too, and longtime collaborators Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (who wrote the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday script) developed The Electric State based on a graphic novel by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag.

Speaking about this reunion, Russo described his regular collaborators as family. 

“We all love each other. We’re all close. We all see each other outside of work. We play fantasy football with Chris Pratt and Anthony Mackie. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are our co-presidents of our company AGBO. We’ve been working together for 12 years now. So this is the best kind of work. It’s work with your friends, and that’s why we go back to the same people over and over. It’s just that we enjoy each other’s company and we look for more opportunities to spend time together. We’re from a big Italian family, and we just built another family when we have to go to work.”

“We have a strict no-asshole policy,” added Joe. “Everybody that we work with, over and over again, is the best.” 

Prepare to see what the Russo “family” has come up with together on their latest project when The Electric State arrives in your homes via Netflix on March 14, 2025.

For even more, fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies to stream now.