[Image: Black Mirror / Facebook]
Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror is back with a seventh season and scaring us with even more dystopian tech nightmares – probably because they’re all a lot closer to home now than they’ve ever been before.
Netflix released the first previews of the new instalment on Thursday, teasing “six electrifying stories”, and asking fans to prepare to “lose your mind” and “lose your reality”.
The new trailer keeps that signature eerie, doom-laden vibe, teasing a fresh batch of tech-gone-wrong nightmares. This season brings in heavy hitters like Peter Capaldi, Issa Rae, Paul Giamatti, Rashida Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross, Emma Corrin, Awkwafina, and Chris O’Dowd—just to name a few.
But here’s the real twist: for the first time, the anthology is circling back to past stories. The trailer confirms that USS Callister isn’t done yet—Cristin Milioti is back as Nanette Cole, the programmer who found herself trapped in a twisted video game by her psychotic boss Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons). The last time we saw them, Daly got what was coming to him, but other survivors—Billy Magnussen’s Karl, Milanka Brooks’s Elena, and Osy Ikhile’s Nate—are still out there, and they’re back for more. Even Jimmi Simpson, whose character met a seemingly grim fate, is making a return.
And that’s not the only familiar face. Will Poulter and Industry’s Asim Chaudhry are also back, each taking on fresh roles after their mind-bending turns in 2018’s interactive special Bandersnatch. Buckle up—this season is rewriting its own rules.
“We’re doing some things we’ve not done before,” Brooker said of the new episodes last year.
“People can expect quite a lot of emotion and, hopefully, a good mix of chills. We did a couple of horror stories in season six, which we label as Red Mirror. But this time around, the episodes are all, in a way, like OG Black Mirror. I wrote one script, and the general consensus was that it was one of the bleakest, heaviest gut punches yet. There’s also tech-y episodes and ones that are making people cry. So, hopefully, it’s a full emotional workout, but we shall see. The viewers will be the judge.”
Black Mirror first premiered in 2011 and in its first five seasons, it nabbed 14 Emmy nominations and eight wins, including Outstanding TV Movie for San Junipero in 2017, USS Callister in 2018 and Bandersnatch in 2019.
Season 7 of Black Mirror premieres on Netflix on April 10.
