Black Mirror is coming back to Netflix. Variety reports that the streamer has commissioned a sixth season of the dystopian sci-fi show.
The last season of the anthology show was made available to watch back in 2019, and consisted of just three episodes. Cast members included Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Miley Cyrus, and Andrew Scott.
Variety claims that casting is currently underway at Netflix. The trade publication also notes that production sources say the new episodes will be "even more cinematic in scope" with each installment being treated as an individual film. That would be consistent with Black Mirror season 5, with the episodes all being over an hour long.
The reason for the long wait between seasons has not been revealed, though the delay was likely due to showrunners and producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones starting a new production company, Broke and Bones, which has been heavily invested in by Netflix. The rights to Black Mirror, however, stayed with Brooker and Jones' former production house, House of Tomorrow, backed by Endemol Shine Group. Endemol was bought by the Banijay Group, and a deal between Broke and Bones and the Banijay Group had to be hammered out.
Back in 2020, pre-pandemic, Brooker had said of the future of Black Mirror was up in the air. "At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on one of those," he told Radio Times. "I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh."
What topics will Brooker and the team tackle this time around? Who's to say, but after a world-changing pandemic, there's a whole lot of subject matter that could be ripe for Black Mirror to explore. Check out our ranking of the best Black Mirror episodes for a reminder of what came before.
