Black Mirror has skewered everything from cutural norms to dating apps, and in Season 6, the series turned its attention to Netflix itself with a number of episodes referencing “Streamberry,” a streaming service that takes the algorithm a little too far. Now, in Season 7, the attention has turned to a new medium: video games.
It’s by no means the first time the series has focused on video games. In fact, Black Mirror briefly became a video game itself. But the series hasn’t forgotten that — in fact, it’s going back to its roots by showing a forgotten character’s triumphant return. Check out the trailer for Black Mirror Season 7 below:
We knew that Season 7 would include one sequel: a follow-up to USS Callister, the Emmy-winning Season 4 adventure starring Cristin Milioti. We see her in the trailer, but we also see another familiar face: Will Poulter, who played Colin Ritman in the interactive Black Mirror special, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
He’s definitely playing Colin again, as he’s got his platinum-blonde spikes and is shown telling another character, “We have to create software that elevates us.” But this version of Colin is a little different, a little more mature. He’s definitely in his post-Bandersnatch era, as an image from the episode shows him holding up a CD-ROM — technology that would be beyond the wildest imagination of the characters in Bandersnatch. I guess the ending where he perished is definitely not canon.
Bringing him back makes perfect sense, as so much of these series seems to focus on video games, from pixel art characters to VR headsets to Peter Capaldi wearing a long scraggly wig waxing poetic about how the human brain is itself a computer. It seems like Colin will come back for the episode containing the little pixel creatures, as the disc he’s holding reads “THRONGLETS,” the perfect name for the creatures who seem to reproduce exponentially.
Thankfully, we don’t have to wait much longer to see this surprise return in full: Black Mirror Season 7 premieres on Netflix on April 10. But until then, there’s a whole trailer’s worth of clues and Easter Eggs to pick apart.
