Charlie Brooker: 'Black Mirror could just run and run'

BBC News

08-04-2025

It's only been a couple of years since the last series of Charlie Brooker's dystopian Netflix show Black Mirror landed. But we're now living in an unpredictable world and a lot can happen in a short space of time.Renowned for its often savvy and disturbing takes on humanity and our relationship with technology, Black Mirror is back for a seventh series at a time when the pace of change in both politics and tech has left many of us - including lawmakers - struggling to keep up.In 2011, when the first episode aired, Siri was the new kid on the block and the iPhone 4S had just been launched. Now we have Meta AI embedded in WhatsApp and we're on series 10 of the Apple watch. Since then, Black Mirror has taken us from creepy memory devices, phone implants and robotic bees to actors-turned-werewolves. And everything in between.Brooker is in buoyant mood as, he tells the BBC there appears to be little danger of him running out of ideas anytime soon, when asked if Black Mirror could go on forever."Hopefully [it will run and run]. Selfishly, it's a fun job," he says. "Technology is developing in the real world very quickly. "That means there are more sources of inspiration, and... the viewer is experiencing more [technological] things in their everyday life."We can do stories that I wouldn't have thought of 10 years ago, and also, you don't need to explain some of the concepts to people because they've got it in their phone."
The Crown and Deadpool & Wolverine actor Emma Corrin, who stars in one of this season's episodes, adds: "It's much closer to home. People have access to stuff like AI which is terrifying so then it's more confronting and serves as a better warning."Brooker jokes: "So you're saying it should go on forever?" "Yes, it should go on forever," Corrin concurs.Brooker adds: "I'll find out when it stops if I drop dead or people stop watching."Corrin appears in an episode titled Hotel Reverie, alongside Issa Rae. The pair both play A-listers appearing in a remake of a vintage Hollywood classic. With a twist, of course.Corrin plays screen siren Dorothy Chambers, and reflects: "I really enjoyed playing in a 1940s movie star."I just like the voice and the mannerisms and the way they hold themselves, and the style of acting is so ridiculous, larger than life and tongue in cheek, and yet packed with emotion at the same time."
Without giving too much away, AI - the subject of much debate in the creative industries - rears its head in the storyline.Corrin says they don't "feel great" about its potential impact on their profession."Obviously, I think it's scary, but it's also a massive conversation, right? There are aspects of it that are terrifying to me as an artist. I love the creative process. I love that this art is born out of being in a room with people and things coming from the depths of someone's human experience or imagination. And I really don't think we'll lose that, or I hope not. "And I think there are also aspects of AI I probably don't understand, and that could be used as tools for good. It's about everyone being able to understand them and to use them correctly, and them being in the right hands."Brooker agrees: "Quite rightly, when Andy Serkis played Gollum [in the Lord of the Rings trilogy], everyone's amazed by that, but what you're amazed by is the human, you're seeing a human performance shining through."I can totally see the value of AI as a tool for creative people. The point at which it worries me is if you remove the people bit from that equation, or you're just hoovering up their work and regurgitating it, and they're not being paid."
Brooker also returns to another favourite tech theme, which he's used as a jumping off point for several Black Mirror episodes over the previous six series. The world of gaming.Remember the interactive standalone Black Mirror film Bandersnatch, where Asim Chaudhry and Will Poulter played a games company boss and a genius developer? The pair are now reprising their roles from the 2018 movie in a new series seven episode called Plaything.
Scottish actor Lewis Gribben, who is soon to star in the highly anticipated TV series Blade Runner 2099, plays 1990s games journalist and loner Cameron, who becomes obsessed with one particular game featuring little pixel creatures. (Brooker himself was a games journalist back in the day). Former Doctor Who Peter Capaldi also turns in a brilliantly disturbing performance as an older Cameron.Although a big Black Mirror fan, Gribben hadn't seen Bandersnatch but says that coming to Plaything fresh actually aided his performance."I think it made it easier for me... but I was just intimidated. I was like 'Oh my god, it's Will Poulter who I've watched since I was seven years old acting in Son of Rambow. And Asim Chowdhury from People Just Do Nothing!"Gribben tells the BBC he's a bit of a gamer himself but has more of a handle on it than his Black Mirror character. "I'm playing the new Assassin's Creed Shadows at the minute," he says. "When you have a day off... I can spend a solid 10 hours [on it]. But I like to think most people game in moderation or just have bingeing game sessions. It's more like a relaxation thing."Josh Finan, who has starred in Baby Reindeer, The Responder and recently played Gerry Adams in Say Nothing, plays an acquaintance of Cameron who becomes unwittingly embroiled in his companion's distorted sense of reality. The pair will both star in the highly anticipated Amazon mini-series, Blade Runner 2099. Expected to drop later this year, the action takes place 50 years after 2017's Blade Runner 2049, a movie that also analyses the relationship between humans and AI.Finan isn't too worried about being replaced by robots though."I'm very optimistic. I don't think actors are going anywhere. Maybe I'm being naive [but] I don't think there's any danger of being replaced. What we do is too special."
Black Mirror series seven can be seen on Netflix from Thursday 10 April.