We’ve been having weird and disturbing fever dreams on a semi-regular basis ever since we first watched Charlie Brooker‘s amazingly subversive Black Mirror, a very pointed sci-fi anthology series about the dangers of technology that in many cases could happen at any moment (and really, in the couple years since they aired, his episodes seem to have been more and more prophetic). We’ll have to wait until October 21 to see the new season—which was co-produced with Netflix and will have big name guest stars, writers, and directors—but the first two episodes will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and there are new photos to go along with that reveal.
The two episodes in question are called “San Junipero,” written by Brooker and directed by Owen Harris (who directed the gorgeous 2013 episode “Be Right Back” which had Hayley Atwell and a robot Domhnall Gleeson), and “Nosedive,” written by Michael Schur and Rashida Jones and directed by Joe Wright. We don’t know too much about the episodes but from the photos (in the gallery below!), shared by io9, we can glean a bit of information.
“San Junipero” stars Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw and seems to be set in the ’80s, which would be the first episode not to take place in modern day/near-future. Nothing much else can be surmised, but it looks like Davis is talking to someone in a dark alley, so that’s sure to end very well and not be creepy/sad at all, knowing Brooker and the show in general.
The “Nosedive” pictures seem a lot more evocative from the outset. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Alice Eve (not pictured, obviously) and it appears to take place in a pastel world of capri pants and boat shorts where everyone is looking at their phones. Really, that could just be Malibu today, so I’m sure it’ll have something to do with maybe a Utopian society that takes the titular nosedive because of the phone technology and only Bryce is realizing it. Or, which is more likely, it’ll be something completely different.
I’m sure a lot of info will come out of TIFF early in September about these episodes, but most of us plebs will have to wait until October 17 when they hit Netflix, where we’ll all be staring down the barrel of a screen like the mindless zombies we are.
Speculate on the horror to come in the comments below!
And speaking of the future, can Futurama stop global warming?
Images: Netflix
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and both fears and loves technology. Follow him on Twitter!
