Black Mirror is now fully established as the Twilight Zone of our age. Charlie Brooker’s satirical futurist horror has remained one step ahead of reality and served up a ton of amazing stories. One of the most highly regarded is 2017’s episode “USS Callister,” which won four Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Television Movie.
The tale was a spin on Star Trek, showing Jesse Plemons’ game developer Robert Daly retreating into a simulated world that takes heavy inspiration from the 60s incarnation of the series. Here, Daly is a tyrannical version of Captain Kirk, ordering his crew around as they’re forced to comply with his every whim. Our viewpoint for this is Cristin Milioti’s Nanette Cole, an employee of Daly’s who he recreates in the game and soon realizes that she’s trapped. The episode ends with the virtual crew mutinying against their cruel boss and then setting out to explore the digital frontier.
Now, Giant Freakin Robot is reporting that their inside source has said a USS Callister spinoff series is finally going ahead. This has been rumored for a while, of course, with Jimmi Simpson (who plays James Walton) commenting on the plans in 2019 and saying:
“I will say, unofficially, that was– we’ve always talked about it. Charlie told me he had great ideas; I’m not holding him to that. … He said that it’s his favorite episode and he just wants it to live on.”
The final moments saw the crew dealing with an irate gamer (a fun cameo from Aaron Paul), so I expect further outings to traverse the internet from within. There’s obviously a lot of comedic and story potential in this, but I desperately hope Milioti returns to star, as she was incredible in the episode.
The only complications may be that Charlie Brooker has now departed from Endemol, who hold the intellectual property rights to Black Mirror. No agreement is currently in place to produce a sixth season, though it’s unknown as to whether that dispute would affect a spinoff based on a specific episode. More on this as we hear it.
