Black Mirror sequel that took over 7-year wait almost didn’t happen
It's a history-making episode.
In 2017, Netflix released one of the most highly-praised Black Mirror episodes to date. Almost eight years later, it will have the show’s first-ever sequel.
One of the stars of the season four episode USS Callister has explained to Metro in a new interview that the follow-up to one of the show’s most popular episodes almost didn’t happen.
The original episode follows the co-founder of the virtual reality game company, Infinity, Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) who is non-consensually harbouring the DNA of his business partner James Walton (Jimmi Simpson) and several employees.
He has cloned them into his personal virtual reality system inspired by an 80s show called Space Fleet where he relentlessly abuses them until they have one chance to escape upon the arrival of the newest crew member, Nanette Cole (Critsin Milioti).
At the end of the episode, after a nail-biting showdown, they manage to escape through a wormhole (leaving both Captain and real Robert in the dust to die) and end up in the main cloud, up against millions of Infinity gamers.
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The sequel picks up not too long after we left off with our ambitious crew – also featuring Elena Tulaska (Milanka Brooks),Nate Packer (Osy Ikhile) and Kabir Dudani (Paul G. Raynomd) – getting to grips with the new reality they have found themselves in and the fresh threats it poses.
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Previous Page Next Page‘Honestly, it felt like a bit of a sci-fi fever dream – in a good way,’ Milanka told us about returning to the sci-fi world after so many years.
‘We’d had such hopes of bringing the sequel back for seven years in the end, in all the different iterations that we’d been through.’
But, as with several productions during 2023, Black Mirror was also hit by the Hollywood strikes, knocking down the show’s efforts once more to bring the sequel to life.
Milanka explained: ‘And then the strikes happened so we weren’t able to film when we’d finally got all the cast together again. It started to feel like it was never going to happen.
‘So when it did, I was in complete disbelief. I said to my friends here in LA “there’s no way. It’s just not going to happen. They’ve tried. It’s just the show that’s just never meant to have a sequel”.’
The sequel picks up shortly after the original leaves off – with new threats facing our rebel crew (Picture: Netflix)There had been so many false starts, and false hopes, that even when the 41-year-old actor was flown out to set, she was still in denial.
‘I said, “No, someone’s just going to pop out and go jokes on you. This is your life.” So I never actually thought that it was happening as much as I wanted to remain optimistic. I think we’d all just been sad about the fact that it hadn’t happened.’
But in the end, the cast and crew managed to pull it off and were reunited once more – this time ready for the cameras to roll.
‘When we all met each other in a sort of random office building in Ealing, it was absolutely wonderful,’ she recalled.
‘The cast just sat in a room with the office neon strip lighting and the rough carpet that we all know so well, the plastic chairs and we just said, “Hey, so what have you been up to for the last seven years?”.
‘And the crazy part about it was that we all just gelled back together so easily and so quickly,’ she beamed. It all finally sunk in when they went to visit the rebuilt USS Callister in all its glory, an experience that made Milanka ‘nearly cry’.
She said: ‘That may sound like an exaggeration, but we were blown away because not only were they able to recreate all the dimensions and all of the crazy LED lighting, but it really did feel like we were stepping into our history all these years later.
‘There were so many memories there. It was really special to be able to create new memories all those years later.’
Michaela Coel will not feature in the new episode (Picture: Jonathan Prime / Netflix)However, one crew member was missing from their jolly group. Michaela Coel.
In the original episode she played the sharp-witted Shania, three years before I May Destroy You came out and catapulted her career to new heights.
‘I guess the best thing to say is that she just wasn’t able to come on all the adventures with us,’ Milanka reflected.
‘And that may be down to real-life availability, that’s a good way of putting it, but we miss her dearly. And that’s honest. All the cast, we love her. So yeah, imagine it like this – we always had a little picture of her hanging up somewhere to remind us of Shania.’
Season seven of Black Mirror – from creator Charlie Brooker – is foraying into lands unknown by creating a sequel (another episode in the season will also feature returning Bandersnatch character Colin Ritter played by Will Poulter).
As for why USS Callister was the story to get this rare treatment, for Milanka the answer is simple – there’s still more to tell.
She shared: ‘Where USS Callister is slightly different to other episodes from other seasons is that, first of all, the audience really wants these cloned characters to win.
‘They want them to beat Robert Daly’s power and force. He’s the perfect antagonist and the best part about it is that we do. Thanks to the brains of Nanette Cole, we are able to fly through the wormhole.
‘From the moment that [the episode] came out, it was always a question of, “okay, so where do they go next? What’s going to happen to five cloned people who are essentially learning on the job and pressing keys that don’t really do much? What happens in the multiverse now that they’re a part of the cloud up against millions of subscribers of the game?”
The crew face plenty of threats in their fight to survive (Picture: Netflix/PA Wire)‘The way that Charlie writes is that he really makes sci-fi and dystopian futures feel relevant. He covers big issues in such a skilful way. He creates amazing characters. He writes so well for women, which is a really wonderful thing for us all.’
Although the idea of a sequel is fresh territory some things never change, including the intense secrecy around the episodes.
As Milanka revealed: ‘I feel like I signed about 1400 NDAs. Fortunately, there are apps out there where your signature just gets put on real quick. I was excited about the secrecy and the intrigue.
‘The script was in a constant stage of development, so we were never really certain that this was going to be the shooting script that we were receiving, a month or six weeks before.
‘Plus, they’ve now got very genius ways of you viewing scripts without being able to print them. You can’t do anything with it outside of it being on the screen. I love a hard copy and I love a highlighter so that was limiting for me.
‘[But] I knew that every redraft that Charlie made was just going to make it better and better and better every time. So, yeah, I play along with the secrecy.’
And she is coy about what to expect, and how viewers will react to the surprise ending.
Milanka said she will leave the ending for ‘people to decipher’ (Picture: Nick Wall/Netflix)‘I’ll leave that ending for people to decipher what they take away from it,’ she teases.
One thing guaranteed is ‘more action in the sequel’.
In particular, Milanka’s character is unique with blue skin that differentiates her from the rest of the crew.
‘I feel very fortunate that my face is covered in blue paint so that ageing is something that is not as notable, especially with the beautiful intergalactic lighting of the USS Callister,’ she joked.
As for whether her own relationship with technology has changed since starring in the show, she makes her wariness clear.
‘I learned recently that there is some VR technology that’s being spoken about, created by somebody who claims that you can actually die whilst playing it in real life.
‘I sometimes question whether my interest in going into the VR world is there at all. And I would probably arguably say it’s not but I know there are really good games out there.
The new episodes arrive on April 10 (Picture: Netflix)‘Having watched the episode again recently it’s shocking to think how close we are to creating so many of the topics that Charlie writes and has written about.
‘I think the only person that should really be laughing right now is Charlie Brooker for having seen the future. as he always does, before it arrives.’
As we await our wretched fates, viewers can strap in for a ride once again on USS Callister to check back in with their favourite tenacious gang of virtual rebels.
As Milanka shared: ‘All in all, it’s a pretty sensory experience for audiences to come back to, and hopefully it was worth the wait.’
Black Mirror arrives on Netflix on April 10, 2025.
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