‘Black Mirror’ Creator Charlie Brooker On How ‘USS Callister’ Sequel Came About, Paying Homage To Black-And-White Movies & Watching AI Developments With “Impressed Awe & Rising Horror”

deadline.com:

Black Mirror fans were licking their lips and crying “exit game” when Netflix announced a sequel to the much-loved “USS Callister” episode, and creator Charlie Brooker has dished more on how the next installment came about.

Speaking with Deadline in the days leading up to Black Mirror Season 7, Brooker told us the idea to follow up on the Star Trek-esque episode that starred Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti and Michaela Coel had been percolating almost immediately upon its conclusion.

Brooker revealed there had even been early-stage plans to make a USS Callister limited TV series or feature film following the episode’s premiere during Season 4 of the show in 2017. “Of all the stories we’ve done this one ended as though we were setting it up for the sequel,” said Brooker. “It went through various guises but in the end we made it feature length within the season.

It took so long getting it together — we had the pandemic, writers’ strike and then had to get everyone’s schedules lined up, and that was its own Rubik’s cube on a unicycle.” The sequel, “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is the final episode of the upcoming Season 7 and features most of the returning cast sans Plemons and Coel. “Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister – led by Captain Nanette Cole – are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players,” reads the synopsis.