Are there more dark fantasies from the mind of Charlie Brooker on the way?
It’s been a long, long wait for Black Mirror season 6, and just like that, many viewers will have already binged their way through the five dark, shocking, twisted episodes.
This year’s season took Black Mirror to a different place than ever before, with many of the stories taking place in the past and having less of an immediate focus on technology.
But if you’ve already made your way through Joan is Awful, Loch Henry, Beyond the Sea, Mazey Day and Demon 79, and still have an appetite for more, then what are the chances that we will be getting even more episodes in a future seventh season?
Read on for everything you need to know about Black Mirror season 7.
Will there be a Black Mirror season 7?
!["Myha'la]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/Black-Mirror-Loch-Henry-eceb825.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Myha'la")
As of now, we’ve yet to hear anything regarding the future of Black Mirror. That is perhaps unsurprising – the episodes have only just come out and previously it has often taken a long time following one season for us to get word on another.
However, for our money it would certainly seem more than possible that the show could come back for at least one more outing. This season burst open the idea of what a Black Mirror episode could be in such a surprising way, that now more than ever there would be infinite possibilities for stories going into season 7.
One clear way this has been achieved is with the introduction of Red Mirror episodes, a supernatural semi spin-off within a season which doesn’t revolve around tech at all. With only one Red Mirror episode in the bag, it seems unlikely that Charlie Brooker would want to leave things there and never produce another one.
Chatting to RadioTimes.com and other press about the decision, Brooker said we could “possibly” see more episodes under the label.
“It depends what people make of it and how it gets received and this that and the other,” he added.
“It was really really useful as a sort of refresh – a reset. When Black Mirror started, it was 2011 and at the time, there weren’t many shows that looked like it or there weren’t many shows where someone looked at a smartphone frankly, let alone obsessed over one and sat there staring at it until it ruined them. It felt like there’s quite a few shows with dystopian sci-fi technical themes.
“So, partly what I was doing, I was setting myself a task of ‘What if I think of some storylines that aren’t to do with technology and are to do with horror or set in the past?’ It was partly doing that and then through doing that, we got an episode – Demon 79, which is set in 1979 and is almost like a companion piece to Black Mirror.
“Hopefully, psychologically, it still feels like a Black Mirror episode. What that also did was, the process of thinking of things in that way, then unlocked things like Beyond The Sea where when I’d first thought of that idea, I thought of it as a near-future story that would’ve been set in 2045 or whenever. But as soon as you think ‘Well, what if I set it in the past?’, it becomes a different story and the characters in it are behaving differently. So it was just very interesting. Again, it’s a longwinded answer but the answer is maybe.”
After season 6, the ground feels as fertile as ever for new Black Mirror stories, and fans seems as excited as ever to get feast their eyes on a new batch of episodes.
We’ll keep this page updated as and when any news is revealed regarding the future of the series.
When would Black Mirror season 7 be released?
!["Anjana]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/Demon79-1b685d2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Black")
It’s very difficult to say when Black Mirror season 7 would be released. season 6 has only just been made available and we still have no word on whether a seventh season is on the cards.
It’s even difficult to look at the gaps between past seasons to get a sense of when to expect a seventh. Since the show moved to Netflix, new seasons (or instalments such as Bandersnatch) at first seemed to arrive with around a year in between them, meaning there is potential that we could get season 7 in Summer 2024.
However, the gap between season 5 and season 6 was far longer than usual, lasting for four full years. There are a number of potential reasons for this break – for one thing, Charlie Brooker and his creative partner Annabel Jones left their production company House of Tomorrow in January 2020, leaving the rights to the show with parent company Endemol Shine Group.
This meant that until a deal was arranged, which evidently one was, no more seasons could be produced.
There was also, of course, the matter of the pandemic, which likely slowed things down further, and then there is Brooker’s own appetite for the project himself.
In 2020 he told Radio Times magazine that he didn’t know “what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart”, so was clear that, at the time, he was not working on any new material for the show.
Given that Brooker seems to have regained his passion for the series, and there seem to be no current rights issues getting in the way of future seasons being produced, here’s hoping that season 7 can go into development sooner rather than later, and we will get it far earlier than 2027.
Who would be in the cast for Black Mirror season 7?
!["Salma]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/05/BlackMirror-JoanIsAwful-SalmaHayek-9cd8249-e1687253389522.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412" "\"BlackMirror-JoanIsAwful-SalmaHayek\"")
Given the nature of Black Mirror as an anthology series, it’s almost impossible for us to tell who will be in the cast for a potential seventh season.
Currently, only a handful of actors have appeared in the series more than once, and they have always played different characters. This list includes Aaron Paul, Hannah John-Kamen, Monica Dolan, Michaela Coel, Daniel Lapaine and Anjana Vasan.
Speaking at a Q&A about returning actors, Brooker explained: “There’s no rule that says that an actor can’t come back to Black Mirror. We have had some – Monica Dolan is in this season as well, who was in Smithereens in season 5. Anjana Vasan who stars in Demon 79 alongside Paapa, she was in Nosedive. Michaela Cole was in twice, she had a small part in Nosedive and USS Callister. So yes, there’s loads of them.”
It’s unlikely, but of course not impossible, that we will see any of these stars back for season 7. As for who else could appear, the world really is Charlie Brooker, Netflix and the show’s casting directors’ oyster.
Any number of stars could pitch up for an episode, as seen by this year’s appearances from the likes of Salma Hayek and Josh Hartnett.
Is there a trailer for Black Mirror season 7?
There isn’t a trailer available for Black Mirror season 7 yet but we will make sure to keep this page updated once any new footage becomes available. In the meantime, you can rewatch the trailer for season 6 right here now.
Black Mirror season 6 is available to stream on Netflix now.
Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
Take part in the Screen Test, a project from Radio Times and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, to explore the role of television and audio in our lives.
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.