Chris Pratt explains how his ‘Electric State’ character is like Star-Lord if he never left Earth

Chris Pratt playing a character stuck in a past decade who teams up with a ragtag group of unlikely heroes, including a pint-sized, wise-cracking sidekick, in a movie directed by the Russo brothers? Definitely sounds familiar, but no, we’re not talking about his run as Star-Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Pratt currently stars as war veteran/smuggler Keats in Netflix’s action-comedy The Electric State, based on Simon Stålenhag’s beloved illustrated novel, and the actor is only now realizing just how similar his new hero is to his Guardians of the Galaxy role.

“They’re both products of the same era, and so there’s a similarity in the sense of nostalgia for an era that’s bygone,” Pratt tells Entertainment Weekly when asked about those parallels. “Although it’s an alternate version [in Electric State], it’s the ’90s, and obviously, Quill has all of these pop culture references to the ’80s, things that helped inform him and who he was before he left Earth at 13. Keats is also a product of that time. So in that regard, they’re similar.”

The Electric State also stars Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle, a teen orphan struggling in the post-war aftermath of a failed robot uprising set in an alternate version of the ’90s. Michelle meets Pratt’s smuggler Keats and his robot bestie Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie) as she journeys across the American Southwest to find her missing brother, and they ultimately team up with rebel robots to save the world — much like Peter Quill and his Guardians.

“I guess as a character arc goes, they have a journey; they find something bigger than themselves to want to fight for and are willing to sacrifice themselves for,” Pratt says of his two characters. “There’s him talking to an animated character through the course of it. So I guess, even now, just in this interview, I’m realizing that there are similarities…He kind of feels like what Peter Quill could have been if he didn’t get picked up and go to space, but instead lived through a robot war and went on the run with his robot friend.”

But Pratt quickly clarifies that The Electric State “feels like a completely different movie” than his previous MCU flicks. “This is sort of almost like a neo-western — we’re traveling across the southwest, and we’re on this journey to find Michelle’s brother,” he adds. “I think [Keats] is less competent than Star-Lord. I think he’s a bit more inept, a bit more of a goofball, and looks different, the hair and the mustache.”

The actor laughs about how The Electric State is like his own personal Sliding Doors moment for Star-Lord. “Yeah, that’s right,” he says. “I kind of like to think, hopefully, that’s like every character I ever play though, in this tone, something that’s like a big, family friendly, raucous, adventure, sci-fi film. When it’s a big commercial tone like this, you’re going to get a Sliding Doors version of the characters that I like to play.”

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Re-teaming with the Russo brothers (who previously directed Pratt in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) further added to the familiarity he felt while making The Electric State. “Not all that dissimilar to working with them on a Marvel movie — big budget, massive set pieces, lots of green screen, lots of animated elements,” he says. “And the same sort of familial approach with a lot of the same crew from our previous jobs together, the ad department and camera department and writers. It was getting right back in the ring. It was really nice.”

That also allowed Pratt to stretch his improv skills during filming. “I found myself improvising a lot — the Russos are really open to that,” he says. “They champion that, which is great. That’s been the case since working on Avengers with them and then through this film. I’m really proud of a moment that happens — well, I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s at the end of the movie, and it’s an improvised run that made it into the movie that I’m really proud of.”

The Electric State is now streaming on Netflix.