Black Mirror fans rejoice: the unsettling Netflix series will be expanding its universe into a three-volume series of books, The Wrap reported. Charlie Brooker, showrunner and creator of Black Mirror, is teaming up with Penguin Random House to bring the acclaimed television series from screen to text, with each volume including a collection of stories written by acclaimed authors. All of the stories will be set in the show’s shared universe.
Black Mirror is an anthology series set in the near future and provides an unnerving yet accurate commentary on the role that technology plays in our lives. The series first aired on the UK network Channel 4 before moving to Netflix last year. Many have noted the irony of a show so obsessed with the troubling consequences of a tech-driven future resulting in an old-school paperback spin-off, including Brooker himself, who announced the project on Twitter with his usual wit.
Brooker later went on to explain the project in more depth, humorously stating, “All-new Black Mirror stories from exciting authors — that’s a joyous prospect. And they’re appearing in a high-tech new format known as a ‘book.’ Apparently, you just have to glance at some sort of ‘ink code’ printed on paper and images and sounds magically appear in your head, enacting the story. Sounds far-fetched to me, but we’ll see.” Brooker himself will edit each volume in the book series.
Random House enthusiastically described the first volume as a book that “takes the very essence of [Black Mirror] to create new, original, darkly satirical stories that tap into our collective unease about the modern world. This is Black Mirror in book form, allowed to roam through the imaginations of some of the leading names in contemporary fiction.”
The first volume in the Black Mirror book series will go on sale February 20, 2018 and can be preordered on the Random House website. Black Mirror Season 4 is expected to premiere later this year on Netflix.