Get ready to question humanity’s control over the technology that surrounds us: a new season of Netflix’s Black Mirror is in the works. Today, the official Black Mirror X page revealed the cast of the new season, which will be released next year, along with other interesting hints and Easter eggs.
The video features a flickering old computer screen that appears to load a complete data dump of the entire cast of season 7. Among the names that jump out at us are Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti, Doctor Who star and Oscar winner Peter Capaldi (who won in 1995 for the live-action short film “It’s a Wonderful Life!”), Awkwafina, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross and Rashida Jones.
The list also includes the cast who played the fictional crew of the USS Callister in the iconic fourth season episode of the same name. Names from the USS Callister episode who appeared on the list include Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks, and Ossie Ikiel.
We’ve known for a while that series creator Charlie Brooker plans to revisit the crew of the USS Callister. In the opening episode of season 4, Jesse Plemons plays Robert, the chief technology officer of a top-tier game studio and a huge fan of the Star Trek-esque TV show Space Fleet. By day, he’s pushed around by his coworkers and staff and receives little recognition for his company’s success. Using immersive virtual reality technology, he takes time off work in a virtual spaceship to play as Space Fleet fleet commander Robert Daly, taking out his frustrations and anger on the crew in increasingly cruel and inhumane ways. The crew had been cloned in the game using the DNA of their superiors and staff, which Robert had obtained without their permission or knowledge. The crew rebels and flees onto the internet, but an angry “Captain Robert” is left behind in the game.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a true Black Mirror announcement if the teaser didn’t contain hints and hidden items. The loading screen reveals the studio name Tuckersoft, a reference to the game studio behind the interactive film Bandersnatch. The cast’s names are listed alphabetically by first name, but in groups of eight. Between the scrolling group names are cryptic phrases like “Too early?”, “A rose for a rose,” and “Shields 58 percent.”
Are those episode titles? The latter is definitely a reference to the USS Callister, and Brooker and co. love iconic episode titles taken from songs from their tech-hell tales, like “Shut Up and Dance” and “Hang the DJ.” New episodes of Black Mirror aren’t even out yet, and they’re already messing with our heads.
