‘Black Mirror’ Season 5 Trailer Easter Eggs: Bandersnatch Connection Leaks?

Ever since Netflix took over Black Mirror, the anthology series has made steady progress towards turning its series of disconnected episodes into an intertwined Black Mirror universe, and Season 5 may feature one of the biggest moments of world-building yet. While the newly released trailer seems purposefully short on details, the show’s IMDb page reveals what could be a pretty huge Easter egg and an even bigger spoiler for the upcoming episodes.

Here’s what you need to know about how Black Mirror Season 5 Episode 1, “Striking Vipers” could connect directly to Bandersnatch and another fan-favorite episode.

Warning: Potential Black Mirror Season 5 spoilers ahead.

Black Mirror Season 5, Episode 2 “Striking Vipers”

Based on its IMDb page alone, “Striking Vipers” has the largest cast of any Season 5 Black Mirror episode. That includes movie stars like Anthony Mackie (Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Black Manta in Aquaman). The full cast also includes Ludi Lin as a Street Fighter-inspired video game character, Frances Sholto-Douglas as “Carmen,” Greg Kriek as “Todd,” Julian Ferro as a “Student,” and perhaps most interestingly, Abdul Hakim Joy as “Tucker Worker,” according to IMDb.

That last character should set off alarm bells for anyone who watched Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the interactive choose-your-own-adventure set in 1984 at a video game company called Tuckersoft. It’s easy enough to connect the dots from there, assuming that Tuckersoft eventually shortened its name to Tucker and moved from basic computer games into advanced virtual reality simulations like the one seen in the Season 5 trailer.

But the connections go even further. One moment in the new Black Mirror trailer also show’s Mackie’s character remove a small metal disc from a box and place it on his forehead, causing his eyes to glaze over as he presumably becomes immersed in a VR game.

If that looks familiar, it’s because we’ve also seen similar tech in another Black Mirror episode, “”USS Callister,” which focused on a VR video game company in the near future. So is it possible that Black Mirror Season 5, Episode 2 could bridge the gap between those two episodes? It certainly seems like it.

While you’re here, let’s break down what the Black Mirror trailer may have revealed about the other two episodes coming in Season 5.

Black Mirror Season 5, Episode 2 “Smithereens”

We know very little about this episode, but it definitely stars an unhinged Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Spectre) as a man struggling to adapt to technology in the not-too-distant future. We see him waving a gun as the police surround his car. He also uses various gadgets, including an app on his phone called Smithereen. Another quick cut appears to show a large corporate office with the same exclamation point logo.

In the same trailer, we also hear Scott complain about everyone’s obsession and dependence on modern technology. This feels like Black Mirror at its most meta, but we’re sure there’s a clever twist.

Black Mirror Season 5, Episode 3

The most mysterious episode of Black Mirror yet doesn’t even have a title. Season 5, Episode 3 features Miley Cyrus, a little robot with the same hairdo as Miley Cyrus’ character, and a young isolated girl who seems to be going through a transformation.

How do these all connect? Is the little girl the same character as Miley Cyrus? Is Miley’s character even real, or just some sort of internet-created digital celebrity? Does that robot thing have anything to do with the “cookie” assistants introduced in Black Mirror’s holiday special “White Christmas”? We literally have no idea.

According to IMDb, the episode also features Glenn Webster as a police officer. It’s possible Topher Grace, who appears as some sort of self help guru in the Black Mirror Season 5 trailer, could also turn up in Episode 3 — a shot of him has a similar aesthetic — but for the moment he’s not listed as a cast member for any of the upcoming episodes.

Grace could just as easily show up in “Smithereens” or “Striking Vipers” — or all three. We’ll just have to wait and find out.

Black Mirror Season 5 airs June 5 on Netflix.