Black Mirror is breaking new ground with its upcoming seventh season. For the first time, the show is revisiting a previous storyline with a sequel to 2017’s USS Callister episode – but expect less Star Trek and more akin to a blockbuster this time around.
“We definitely leant into the dated feel of Star Trek for the first one; this one’s more action movie, more of a modern approach,” director Toby Haynes says in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features Black Mirror season 7 on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, March 26.
“But it’s always great working with Charlie [Brooker] – we spend a lot of time in heavy meetings that are stressful and always come out laughing at the end of it. I’m loving it. I’m Mr Sci-Fi now. I’ve been lost in space for quite a few shows in a row, but I’m happy.”
The original episode, which was released as part of season 4, starred The Penguin’s Cristin Milioti as Nanette, a new programmer at Callister Inc., a company that produces a sci-fi multiplayer game called Infinity.
However, co-founder Robert Daly, played by Jesse Plemons, has a sadistic streak – and a secret build of the game where he’s turned his employees into digital clones. When Nanette realizes she’s one of the clones, she conspires to take Daly down, and succeeds. Milioti and co-stars Jimmi Simpson and Billy Magnussen will return for the sequel.
“Obviously the first one was riffing on Star Trek and this one is slightly riffing on Star Wars,” creator Charlie Brooker adds. “That was another slight difference and that meant, okay, scale-wise we’re going to go down to some planets, we’re going to have some pyrotechnics going off, we’re going larger with more stuff going on in space than we had in the first one.”
“We kept saying, ‘What’s unique to our premise?’ It’s weird, because you sort of forget it’s a game,” he continues. “To them it’s real, obviously. So it plays out on that sort of scale, it feels a bit Return of the Jedi or something along those lines, because it has to.”
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Black Mirror season 7 releases on Netflix on April 10. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which features Black Mirror season 7 on the cover and will available from Wednesday, March 26. Check out what you need to be looking out for on newsstands below…
I was invited to the set of the first ever @blackmirror sequel and onto the bridge of the USS Callister…Repeatedly told @charltonbrooker how much I love Dead Set. New issue of @SFXmagazine on sale 26 March! #BlackMirror #BuyMagazines pic.twitter.com/Uq2CLJRiTMMarch 21, 2025