Charlie Brooker has some more good news for ‘Black Mirror’ fans

Just three months have passed since the fourth season of Black Mirror came to Netflix, but we’re all – despite the entire premise of the show – looking forward to the future.

In between terrifying glimpses about the technologies which already exist and might arrive soon, we received the news that Charlie Brooker’s dystopian show is returning to Netflix for season five.

The upcoming release was teased on the show’s Twitter account, and fans are eager to learn how long we’ll have to wait for its return.

The gap between seasons three and four was just over 14 months, but Brooker’s latest comments give us plenty to be hopeful about.

Speaking on the red carpet outside the Royal Television Society Awards, Brooker confirmed one episode is already being filmed and more are close.

“We’re filming one at the moment, we can say that,” he said.

“We are about to start filming another one, imminently, I’m writing the next one and then it gets a bit more foggy.”

So, what do we know so far about upcoming episodes or episode ideas?

Brooker has previously spoken of connections between episodes, and the character of Victoria Skillane from season two episode ‘White Bear’ is one whose name has cropped up across the more recent seasons as an Easter egg.

Back in 2016, the show’s creator told The Independent he had already written a script for a ‘White Bear’ sequel, saying “I sometimes think we could do that” but wondering aloud about how realistic it was.

“There was a whole extra idea for [season two opener] ‘Be Right Back’ too, where we’d see other people who’d been brought back from their social media profiles,” he added, before adding that “I’ve sort of figured some characters…could recur” from season three episode ‘Hated in the Nation’.

There have also been calls from fans for a follow-up to season three standout ‘San Junipero’, which won two Primetime Emmy awards.

However, Brooker explained any sequel would need to be “in a completely different form” to the original, perhaps an ‘experience’ rather than an episode.

As for casting decisions, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in September 2017, Brooker and Black Mirror showrunner Annabel Jones explained they weren’t in the habit of turning anyone down.

Barely any actors have featured in more than one episode, though – a notable exception is Daniel Lapaine in ‘The Entire History of You’ and ‘Black Museum’ – so it seems likely the show would continue with entirely new casts for each episode.

One thing does seem likely, though – Brooker and Jones, in that same Hollywood Reporter interview, suggested they had no plans to move away from the six-episodes-per-season format.

So, unless Netflix has any other plans, we can anticipate more of the same in that regard.

(Images: Netflix/Getty)