The seventh season of Black Mirror is on the horizon! According to Variety, the coveted sci-fi dystopian show is set to start production later this year. Plot details and the number of episodes have yet to be revealed, and no cast has been assigned for the season.
Creator Charlie Brooker (Cunk on Earth, Dead Set) is expected to work alongside past executive producers Annabel Jones (Death to 2021, Cat Burglar) and Jessica Rhoades (Dirty John, Utopia.)
After a four-year hiatus, Black Mirror returned with season six in June, which garnered record viewing numbers on Netflix. It achieved the Top 10 in 92 countries and spent four weeks in Netflix’s global top 10 of English-speaking TV.
The sixth season consisted of five episodes and featured several A-list celebrities, including Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken), Salma Hayek (Frida, Savages), Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin, The Faculty), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Need for Speed) and Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, Men).
Meanwhile, season five only had three episodes, starring Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana, The Last Song), Topher Grace (That ’70s Show, Traffic), Anthony Mackie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Hurt Locker) Andrew Scott (Pride, Sherlock) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman, The Get Down.)
Black Mirror’s rights have been complicated, which explains why seasons five and six were delayed. As of January 2020, Brooker and his creative partner, Jones, left their production company, Enedemol Shine-backed House of Tomorrow, to take on another creative route with Netflix to start a production banner entitled Broke and Bones.
However, due to the deal between Brooker and his former company, they have retained rights to Black Mirror. The rights were acquired by Banijay Group in 2020, and Banijay Rights now licenses Black Mirror to Netflix.
Some bleak predictions have been attributed to the otherworldly series, as the first episode of season six started with a bang. Joan Is Awful is about a streaming service called Streamberry, which took over and followed every step of a person’s life in real-time and utilized AI to turn those lives into a show.
Brooker revealed to Variety that this episode was written before the AI service ChatGPT became news nationwide.
“I worry for a living — it’s generally what I do— and I’m very worried about AI and the use of ChatGPT and things like that,” said Brooker at a London rally supporting the writers strike earlier this year. “That’s a particular concern to me, so that’s why I’m here.”
When Brooker was asked if the episode was yet another example of Black Mirror predicting the future, he replied: “Unfortunately, in this case.”