Universe-building is all the rage these days in film and television, and with Black Mirror Season 5 newly confirmed, chances are high that Netflix’s creepy-AF sci-fi anthology series could build some kind of shared universe.
On Monday, Netflix officially announced that Black Mirror would return for Season 5. The official Black Mirror Twitter account also released a cryptic teaser featuring some of the show’s most critically acclaimed episodes, ending with a reference to Season 2’s “Be Right Back” episode.
There’s no official word on how many episodes Season 5 might run, but with past seasons on Netflix, showrunner Charlie Brooker and executive producer Annabel Jones have opted for launched each season in two separate six-episode parts. Both have told The Hollywood Reporter that this model is the status quo for the show’s production:
“I think even a number seven would just do us in,” Jones said, with Brooker adding, “If it was seven, would our brains pop?”
The new teaser deals heavily in imagery from Season 4’s “Black Museum,” which showcased the interconnected nature of these many stories:
Black Mirror has already offered tons of Easter eggs and shared details between episodes that make the anthology series seem like some kind of shared universe. Even Season 3 offered tons of little clues connecting different episodes.
Season 5 could expand the Black Mirrorverse even more by connecting the many technologies and stories presented in past episodes.
'Black Mirror' is only getting better and better.
But ultimately, the interconnectedness of Black Mirror could prove tangential at best. In 2016, Charlie Brooker said on Reddit that Black Mirror episodes “take place in the same psychological universe.” So it’s unlikely that we’ll ever get a full convergence, but we’re still bound to get tons of Easter eggs and nods in future seasons that connect these twisted stories on multiple levels.
Black Mirror Season 5 has no currently scheduled release date.
