Black Mirror Is Officially Coming Back For Season 8
Shockingly, there’s still inspiration for tech dystopia stories out there.
Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series Black Mirror has been making us face the dark side of technology for 15 years now. In 2011, that meant live TV ransoms and capitalist reality shows. But last year, in Season 7, we saw memories brought to life, emotions run on subscription models, and the Hollywood remake machine going very literal.
In the age of AI popping up everywhere, Black Mirror isn’t going to stop reflecting real life any time soon — but what could possibly be next?
Netflix recently announced that Black Mirror will return for an eighth season, and Brooker already has ideas for it. “I can confirm that Black Mirror will return, just in time for reality to catch up with it,” he said in a promo conversation with the streamer. “So, that’s exciting. That chunk of my brain has already been activated and is whirring away.”
Could Black Mirror revisit its AI “griefbot” story from Season 2?
The observation that the season will come “just in time for reality to catch up with it” is interesting, as the rapidly changing landscape was previously used to explain a gap between seasons. Back in 2020, Brooker explained the long wait for Season 6 by saying, “At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on one of those.”
Now, the rise of AI and other new technologies has become an asset for Brooker, as it means a wealth of potential ideas. We’re increasingly surrounded by technology that feeds on our emotions and attempts to be our friend, and while this is nothing new for the show — the Season 2 opener, “Be Right Back,” focused on a chatbot trained on messages from a deceased loved one — it seems like everything from our phones to our toasters are trying to chat us up these days.
How far will Brooker take things now that reality is more outrageous than ever? Will we see his take on AI hallucinations? How about a sequel to that Season 2 episode, “Be Right Back,” the same way we got a sequel to “U.S.S. Callister” in Season 7? Are there dangers we aren’t even seeing yet? Whatever can go wrong will go wrong in the world of Black Mirror.
