In response to the current socio-political climate, as the world faces an unprecedented health crisis, Charlie Brooker, the creator of multi-awarded anthology series, Black Mirror, shared putting plans for a new season to a halt, given today’s pervading global mood of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty.
Brooker, in an interview with Radio Times, opened up about this decision, putting in consideration a global audience that might not be able to “stomach” narratives of a falling society–very similar to what we are currently experiencing, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been busy, doing things. I don’t know what I can say about what I’m doing and not doing,” Brooker relates, admitting that writing the new season is put on hold indefinitely, instead, focusing on other projects. The 49-year-old driving force and showrunner of the successful series, along with Annabel Jones, added, “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 [referring to Black Mirror episodes]. I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”
Since its release in 2011, even before its culture-shaping move to streaming service Netflix, Black Mirror has become known to depict an incisive look and commentary at society, melding science fiction, satire, and black comedy to portray life in dystopia, collecting a wave of hosannas from critics and viewers worldwide.
In 2019, the show rounded up its fifth season, dropping three episodes to the streaming service with top players in Hollywood from Miley Cyrus in “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too”, Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in “Striking Vipers”, and Topher Grace and Andrew Scott in “Smithereens”. This new season came a year after the release of a special interactive film, Bandersnatch, in 2018, as expected, to fan and critical acclaim.
Since its release, the trailblazing series has collected multiple awards including consecutive wins at the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie for episodes, San Junipero (2017), USS Callister (2018), and Bandersnatch (2019).
Before the pandemic, Brooker, lightly touched on the show’s creative and production process in another interview, referring to themes and tropes it seeks to explore.
He told Digital Spy, “Black Mirror is a flavor, and a tone. We have some, fairly wobbly, internal rules about what it is and isn’t right for a Black Mirror episode that we never really articulate out loud, but it does feel pretty flexible.” He added, “So I don’t think there’s anything to stop us… we could do one-offs, we could do an ongoing story, we could do spin-offs.”
Black Mirror is still streaming on Netflix.