‘Black Mirror’: All the Season 4 Details

In a past interview with Charlie Brooker, the Black Mirror creator said he tried working with Netflix to create a surprise for viewers at the end of the season three episode “Playtest.” The horror romp, which warned of virtual and augmented reality dangers, ended with a sinister plot twist. Brooker wanted to take that one step further and have the episode either play on infinite loop or delete itself after it was watched. “I wanted to do it in nightmare mode where after you watched it once, if you watched it again it was different,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Unfortunately — or fortunately for viewers who are easily rattled — it wasn’t possible. That intent, however, should tell fans of the Netflix horror anthology what Brooker has cooked up for season four, which launches Friday, Dec. 29.

In that same interview with THR earlier this year, Brooker, who writes every episode, and executive producer Annabel Jones remained categorically tight-lipped but promised to deliver on a few things when Black Mirror returns with six new episodes. The pair said the season will be littered with Easter eggs to previous episodes; the success of the Emmy-winning “San Junipero” episode might influence more happy endings (though there won’t be a sequel — yet); and there will be new genres, tones and lengths in what the duo called “some of our most ambitious films.”

As 2017 comes to a close and with the Black Mirror season four release date approaching, Netflix launched 13 Days of Black Mirror. Starting on Nov 24, the streamer dropped season four episode trailer bread crumbs that led to a 13th-day release of the full season trailer, along with its launch date. The full tease (below) is a montage of episode clips that span the emotional spectrum, fittingly set to the tune of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.” 

On launch day, Netflix counted down to the new episodes with a cheeky, politically-aimed mashup of the entire series. The past episode’s stories were spliced with clips of the Black Mirror technologies becoming a reality in the news over the past year, along with resonating series messages from political figures from President Donald Trump to Steve Bannon and Sean Spicer. “What a wonderful year,” begins the teaser as it says goodbye to 2017. “It’s hard to imagine a bright future, but we can and we must,” reads the tagline on the show’s official Twitter account.

Happy New Year. pic.twitter.com/XvpfOzHAd1

— Black Mirror (@blackmirror) December 29, 2017

Here is everything to know about new episodes, listed in no particular order below. 

Black Mirror’s fourth season is expected to release in 2017. Keep up with THR‘s show coverage on Live Feed through the weekend.