- "Black Mirror" season seven will air in 2025 and feature the show's first sequel episode.
- The sequel is based on the season 4 episode, "USS Callister."
- "USS Callister" won four Emmys in 2018 and starred Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milloti, and Michaela Coel.
"Black Mirror," the ground-breaking dystopian anthology series, is trying something new for season 7: its first sequel episode.
On Thursday, Netflix announced that the series will return in 2025 and shared a video teaser for the season, featuring the USS Callister logo from season four, episode one.
During a "Next on Netflix" event in London on Thursday to promote the streamer's upcoming UK series, Anne Mensah, vice president of UK Content at Netflix, confirmed to Business Insider and other media outlets that season seven will have a sequel to the season four episode "USS Callister."
"Once again we're spanning the coolest of cool stars with the darkest of dark stories, including for the first time a sequel," Mensah said. "It's the sci-fi adventure 'USS Callister.' Robert Daly is dead, but for the crew of the USS Callister, their problems are just beginning."
The original episode, which aired in 2017, starred Cristin Milloti, Michaela Coel, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, and Aaron Paul. Plemons' now-wife, Kirsten Dunst, also made a brief cameo as an employee in Daly's company. No casting has been confirmed yet for the sequel episode.
In 2018, "USS Callister" was nominated for seven Emmys in the limited series or TV movie category, including an outstanding lead actor award for Plemons. Plemons didn't win, but the show won the award for outstanding writing, sound editing, single-camera picture, and television movie.
"USS Callister" tells the story of a game creator
In the original episode, Plemons plays Daly, the underappreciated creator of a virtual-reality multiplayer game called "Infinity."
Robert creates his own version of the game modeled on his favorite series, "USS Callister," a spoof on "Star Trek," but makes sentient clones of his co-workers for the crew. Daly uses his power to abuse the clones in the game, but at the end of the episode, they escape and trap him inside.
The sequel episode will likely follow the remaining crew members entering Infinity and interacting with real players.
Season 7 will be the fourth season made by Netflix
"USS Callister" was part of the second season made after Netflix bought the rights to the show in 2015 in a deal estimated to be worth $40 million, per The Guardian. The first two seasons were aired by the British broadcaster Channel 4.
However, "Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker said in the oral-history book "Inside Black Mirror" that, after the second season, a new creative team at Channel 4 wasn't as keen on spending money on the anthology series and began requesting briefs about each episode.
Meanwhile, the series exploded in popularity in the US after it was put on Netflix. Brooker said he took a deal with Netflix because the streamer had more confidence in the series.
The streamer has since produced three seasons and pioneered a special interactive episode in 2018.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
