Black Mirror fans are celebrating on social media after a new trailer revealed that the release of the seventh season of Charlie Brooker’s hit dystopian anthology series is less than a month away.
All six new episodes will arrive on Netflix on Thursday, April 10.
The trailer offers glimpses of a star-studded cast that includes Cristin Milioti, Paul Giamatti, Chris O’Dowd, Issa Rae, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Rashida Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross and Awkwafina.
On YouTube, one fan wrote: “Here we go. This show is practically a documentary for our times now.”
Another added, “I am once again ready to be disturbed at how close this is to reality.”
For the first time, the new season will include a sequel episode revisiting the characters from season 4 episode “USS Callister”, with Milioti reprising her role as Nanette Cole.
In another episode, Will Poulter appears to be returning to the role he played in the ground-breaking 2018 interactive episode Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
The show has been widely praised over the years for its uncanny ability to foresee how technological innovations might affect everyday life. On X/Twitter, one fan wrote: “We all know that whatever is in this season, we’ll probably be living it soon. Stoked for a new season!”
However, not everyone is happy with the first glimpses of Black Mirror season 7. The series started life on Channel 4 in 2011 before moving to Netflix in 2016, and some fans on X have complained about the perceived “Americanization” of the show.
One wrote: “The Americanization of Black mirror is the worst thing to happen to this series. Bring back the Euros.”
Another added: “I will never really understand the Americanisation of Black Mirror. Not saying there haven’t been good episodes since Season 3 but it seems to really lose its ‘magic’ with each new season. Anyway, make Black Mirror Bri’ish again.”
Back in 2023, writer-director Brooker responded to similar critiques by saying: “One of the criticisms we sometimes get is, ‘I prefer the show when it was British and everyone in it was miserable and everything smelled a little bit of s*** and all the stories were horrible.
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“And then it’s gone to Netflix and suddenly everything’s sunny and happy and everyone has wonderful teeth, and it’s full of Hollywood stars and it’s lost that edge.”
Brooker said he understood the criticism, noting that “everyone expected me to be like the Unabomber” once he started doing business in the U.S.
He added: “I was aware we’re going on a global platform now, so we’ve got to make these stories a bit more international. And I wanted to mix it up a bit, as in not just keep doing bleak-a-thons.”