An Emmy-winning 'Black Mirror' episode is getting a sequel in 2025. Here's what to know about season 7.
Jonathan Prime / Netflix
- "Black Mirror" season seven will air in 2025 and feature the show's first sequel episode.
- The sequel is based on the season four episode, "USS Callister."
- Netflix announced the cast of season seven will include Cristin Milioti, Issa Rae, and Paul Giamatti.
"Black Mirror," the ground-breaking dystopian anthology series, is trying something new for season seven: its first sequel episode.
In March, Netflix announced that the series will return in 2025 and shared a video teaser for the season, featuring the USS Callister logo from season four, episode one.
During a "Next on Netflix" event in London in March to promote the streamer's upcoming UK series, Anne Mensah, vice president of UK Content at Netflix, confirmed to Business Insider and other media outlets that season seven will have a sequel to the season four episode "USS Callister."
"Once again we're spanning the coolest of cool stars with the darkest of dark stories, including for the first time a sequel," Mensah said. "It's the sci-fi adventure 'USS Callister.' Robert Daly is dead, but for the crew of the USS Callister, their problems are just beginning."
The original episode, which aired in 2017, starred Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, Michaela Coel, and Billy Magnussen. Aaron Paul and Plemons' now-wife, Kirsten Dunst, also made brief cameos.
The plots of the season's other episodes are under wraps, but on Thursday, Netflix officially announced the cast for season seven.
The casting teaser also had a small reference to "Tuckersoft," the company in 2018's interactive "Bandersnatch" episode. This could mean "Bandersnatch" will also get a sequel episode, although that's unconfirmed.
Here's what we know about "Black Mirror" season seven.
Most of the 'USS Callister' cast is returning for season seven
Magnussen, Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Paul G. Raymond, Milanka Brooks, and Osy Ikhile were in the casting announcement for season seven. They all starred in the original "USS Callister" episode, implying they are reprising the roles in the sequel.
Plemons and Coel are the only main castmembers not returning.
Rashida Jones, who has previously written an episode of "Black Mirror," will also star in season seven.
The other notable names in the season seven cast are Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae, and Tracee Ellis Ross.
'USS Callister' tells the story of a game creator
Netflix
Spoilers ahead for the "USS Callister" in season four of "Black Mirror."
In the original episode, Plemons plays Robert Daly, the underappreciated creator of a virtual-reality multiplayer game called "Infinity."
Daly creates his own version of the game modeled on his favorite series, the "Star Trek" spook "USS Callister," but makes sentient clones of his co-workers for the crew. Daly uses his power to abuse the clones in the game, but at the end of the episode, they escape and trap him inside it.
Daly's death explains why Plemons was not in the season seven casting announcement. It's unclear why Coel won't return.
The sequel episode will likely follow the remaining crew members entering Infinity and interacting with real players.
In 2018, "USS Callister" was nominated for seven Emmys in the limited series or TV movie category, including an outstanding lead actor award for Plemons.
Plemons didn't win, but the show won the award for outstanding writing, sound editing, single-camera picture, and television movie.
"Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker told The Hollywood Reporter in May that he always intended to do a follow-up to "USS Callister," but scheduling and the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way.
"I've never had it before on 'Black Mirror,' to have a character that survives beyond one episode! So that's been a lot of fun, and then seeing them all on set has been fantastic," Brooker said.
Season 7 will be the fourth 'Black Mirror' season made by Netflix
Jonathan Prime / Netflix
"USS Callister" was part of the second season of "Black Mirror" made after Netflix bought the rights to the show in 2015 in a deal estimated to be worth $40 million, per The Guardian. The first two seasons were aired by the British broadcaster Channel 4.
However, Brooker said in the oral-history book "Inside Black Mirror" that, after the second season, a new creative team at Channel 4 wasn't as keen on spending money on the anthology series and began requesting briefs about each episode.
Meanwhile, the series exploded in popularity in the US after it was put on Netflix. Brooker said he took a deal with Netflix because the streamer had more confidence in the series.
The streamer has since produced three seasons and pioneered a special interactive episode in 2018.
Tudum reported that Brooker told Netflix's Geeked Week live event on Thursday that season seven of "Black Mirror" will have the tone of the early seasons.
"We have evolved to a place where it's kind of OG 'Black Mirror' this season. So it's all sci-fi, techno-dystopia," he said. "You can expect a mix of genres and styles.
"We've got six episodes this time, and two of them are basically feature-length. Some of them are deeply unpleasant, some are quite funny, and some are emotional."
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