The Electric State has shot straight to the top of the most-watched movies list on Netflix after getting a bit of a critical bashing ahead of its release.
If you've already seen it, you'll know it features an Avengers reunion between directors Joe and Anthony Russo and Chris Pratt, who has appeared in the duo's epic Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame double bill.
But you might not realise that there's another MCU reunion hidden in plain sight and it also involves Pratt. He plays low-rent smuggler Keats, who helps Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) in her quest to find her brother.
Keats has a robot companion in the form of wise-cracking Herman and, while the high-pitched voice won't be immediately recognisable, Herman is voiced by Anthony Mackie.
Mackie appeared alongside Pratt in Infinity War and Endgame, marking another Avengers reunion in The Electric State. However, unsurprisingly, Mackie wasn't on-set with Pratt during the making of the Netflix movie.
Instead, Herman was performed on-set by Martin Klebba, who had previously worked with Pratt on Jurassic World. You might also recognise him from the Pirates of the Caribbean series, where he played Marty in four of the five movies.
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"Anthony Mackie voices Herman beautifully throughout the course of the film, but laying down the tracks for the voice is part of the postproduction process," Pratt told Tudum.
"During production a lot of the banter between Keats and Herman was a combination of riffing with Joe Russo and Marty Klebba, the mo-cap actor behind Herman... He's absolutely hilarious and I love him dearly."
There are plenty of other famous faces behind the robots in The Electric State too, starting with Cosmo who starts Michelle off on her quest by claiming that he knows where her brother really is.
He might not be instantly recognisable, but Cosmo is voiced by Disney legend Alan Tudyk. He's voiced characters in every Disney animation since 2012, including Frozen, Zootopia and Big Hero 6.
As with Herman, Cosmo was brought to life on set by motion capture actors Devyn Dalton and Phoenix Notary. "It's very easy to develop a bond like that when you have such an amazing mo-cap actor like Devyn," Brown told Tudum.
"She and I had already worked together before when I was 9 years old on a project in Canada and it actually became more of a sisterly bond. We had this love and a relationship that connected us. Her performance is unbelievable and it drew out a lot of emotion in me."
As for the other major robot characters who team up with Michelle to take down the evil Sentre, you'll recognise the famous faces that brought them to life.
Robot leader Mr Peanut is voiced by Woody Harrelson, with Terry Notary as the motion capture actor, while Notary was also the motion capture actor for Pop Fly who is voiced by Brian Cox (the actor, not the scientist).
Other robot voice cast in The Electric State include Jenny Slate as the voice of mail carrier robot Penny Pal and Hank Azaria voicing magician robot Perplexo.
The robots were played on set by Gabrielle Maiden and Christopher Silvestri, respectively.
The Electric State is now available to watch on Netflix.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
