Star-studded Black Mirror season six to be 'most unpredictable' yet

The acclaimed sci-fi thriller returns to Netflix in June with a cast that includes Salma Hayek Pinault, Aaron Paul, Himesh Patel and Josh Hartnett

Aaron Paul in Black Mirror season six. Photo: Netflix

After a four-year hiatus, Black Mirror is returning in what Netflix says “will be the most unpredictable season yet".

The dystopic sci-fi thriller series has rarely been accused of being predictable, but creator Charlie Brooker said he even surprised himself with season six, which will premiere on Netflix in June.

A trailer was released on Thursday, and though it’s hard to infer the plot, between the scenes in retro-looking US diners, exaggerated violence in a clothing store, as well as a shuffle of tableaux-esque encounters, there is enough to stir excitement.

“I’ve always felt that Black Mirror should feature stories that are entirely distinct from one another, and keep surprising people — and myself — or else what’s the point?” Brooker told Netflix’s Tudum.com. “It should be a series that can’t be easily defined and can keep reinventing itself.

"Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect."

Kate Mara in Black Mirror season six. All photos: Netflix

Salma Hayek Pinault in the show

Aaron Paul in one of the episodes

Auden Thornton and Josh Hartnett

After a four-year hiatus, Black Mirror is returning in what Netflix says will be the most unpredictable season yet

Zazie Beetz in the show

Black Mirror: Season 6

Season six of Black Mirror is set to return in June

Known for its star power, the latest season of Black Mirror also features an A-list cast

Paapa Essiedu in the show

The new season will also add "a few new elements" to familiar Black Mirror tropes, he said, adding that "the stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through — but with some crazy swings and more variety than ever before.”

The show is also known for its star power, with previous seasons featuring the likes of Daniel Kaluuya, Jon Hamm, Jodie Whittaker, Michaela Coel and Anthony Mackie, among others.

Season six will have even more of a stellar punch.

“Bringing it all to life we’ve got an incredible roster of disgustingly skillful, smart directors working with a cast of actors so talented they frankly have no right to exist,” Brooker said.

Stars include Salma Hayek Pinault, Aaron Paul, Himesh Patel, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Michael Cera, Rory Culkin and Zazie Beetz. We get a glimpse of a few of them in the trailer.

“I can’t wait for people to binge their way through it all and hope they enjoy it — especially the bits they shouldn’t,” Brooker said.

Every Black Mirror episode to date ranked from worst to best — in pictures

23. 'White Christmas': The 2014 Christmas special was the final episode of the show to air on the UK’s Channel 4, and probably served to prove that 'Black Mirror' had gone as far as it could with a traditional broadcaster. 'White Christmas' packs three separate stories into its 74-minute run time, all dealing with themes that have been explored in more depth in standalone episodes before or since. Brooker suggested that the inspiration for the three-story, feature-length anthology was the 1983 'Twilight Zone' movie, which was pretty terrible, so could explain why 'White Christmas' is propping up our list. Netflix

22. 'The Waldo Moment' (Series 2, Episode 3, 2013): 'The Waldo Moment' hasn’t aged well. It’s become something of a victim of reality, in fact. When I first watched the episode in 2013, it seemed utterly ground-breaking. The idea that the public’s obsession with media could result in a garish, obscene cartoon bear standing for parliament and ultimately becoming the palatable public face of authority for a shadowy, unseen global elite seemed fantastical. Then the 2016 US election took place, and we realised Waldo had been reality TV all along. Netflix

21. 'Playtest' (Series 3, Episode 2, 2016): 'Playtest' is a perfectly acceptable haunted house thriller in and of itself; it just isn’t very 'Black Mirror'. The protagonist agrees to test a new VR software implant for a gaming company and spends the night in a haunted house, becoming increasingly unable to separate reality from its virtual cousin. The episode looks great, but ultimately there’s no real themes at play, no twists, and all we get is an enjoyable, but unexceptional, VR horror yarn. Netflix

20. 'Men Against Fire' (Series 3, Episode 5, 2016): More VR trickery as future soldiers are fitted with an implant that makes them see “genetically inferior” humans as freakish mutant zombies, thus making them more amenable to carrying out genocide on behalf of their shadowy masters – our heroes aren’t really soldiers at all, but mind-controlled mercenaries working for a global eugenics programme. It’s a worryingly possible scenario. Netflix

19. 'Arkangel' (Series 4, Episode 2, 2017): The tale of overbearing parenting directed by Jodie Foster, Brooker’s show was in the big league by now. After her daughter goes briefly missing after chasing a cat, a clingy mother signs up for a free trial of a new high-tech surrogate parenting app, Arkangel. Young Sarah is fitted with an implant that allows her mother to use an iPad to monitor her location and medical status, see through her eyes in real time and pixelate or mute disturbing sights or sounds to shield Sara from reality. Unsurprisingly, things don’t go well. Courtesy Netflix

18. 'USS Callister' (Series 4, Episode 1, 2017): The first episode of season four saw 'Black Mirror' take a rare excursion into the realms of comedy, probably its first at this point. Programming wiz and tech company owner Robert Daly feels undervalued by his staff, so he’s been taking DNA from their coffee cups, creating clones of them, and imprisoning them in a 'Star Trek'-like VR game where he is Captain Kirk and can abuse and insult them to his heart’s content. When a new programmer joins the company, and hence the game, things take a sudden left turn. Courtesy Netflix

17. 'Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too' (Series 5, Episode 3, 2019): The final episode of the new season five, and undoubtedly the fun instalment – the 'USS Callister' of season five. Miley Cyrus stars in this not-Disney movie about a seemingly perfect pop star, complete with a cute robotic merchandise version of herself and a wicked, controlling-aunt plotline. A decent study of the power of celebrity, the strangely disjointed relationship between celebrities and their fans and the dangers of Hollywood mum-enforced lost childhoods. Most of all, though, it's worth it for the knowing irony of watching Cyrus perform a sugar-coated pop version of Nine Inch Nails’ 'Head Like a Hole' with the suitably life-affirming lyrics such as “so stoked on ambition and verve / I’m gonna get what I deserve”. Brooker has revealed that NIN’s Trent Reznor immediately “got” the joke and was happy to licence the track. Netflix

16. 'Black Museum' (Series 4, Episode 6, 2017): A firm fan favourite thanks to the numerous Easter eggs and nods to previous episodes, 'Black Museum' is, like 'White Christmas' before it, a three-story anthology, and brought season four to a close. There’s a 'Saw'-­like aesthetic to the show while themes covered include transferring consciousness into inanimate objects and implants that allow you to experience what others are experiencing – again, like 'White Christmas', topics that have been covered in greater depth in previous standalone episodes. Netflix

15. 'Hated in the Nation' (Series 3, Episode 6, 2016): It’s not too often you get to write the words 'a tale of social media hate speech, government surveillance, face-recognition technology and the collapsing bee population' in that order, but this is one of those rare occasions. In a logical conclusion of online hate campaigns, the #DeathTo hashtag is part of an online game which will see the recipient of the most hashtags each day killed by a swarm of drone bees. Benedict Wong is among the police investigating. Netflix

14. 'White Bear' (Series 2, Episode 2, 2013): A woman wakes up in a mysterious house and slowly learns that a strange symbol has appeared on TVs and phone screens, turning most humans into passive voyeurs who simply film everything on their phones. She’s unaffected, but unfortunately that makes her a target for also-unaffected “hunters,” and she finds herself chased through the countryside by murderous gangs as onlookers film proceedings. A big 'Truman Show' reveal and a memory wipe ready for the next day bring us to a 'Clockwork Orange­'-style debate over the merits of cruel and highly public punishment. Netflix

13. 'Bandersnatch' (Special, 2018): Brooker's ground breaking Choose Your Own Adventure-style interactive movie is a hard one to compare to the rest of the episodes as it is, essentially, a completely different medium. Technically and conceptually, its achievements should have it right up at the top of the table. Narratively and in terms of simple entertainment, the fact Brooker is working in an almost entirely new medium and still learning the ropes to a degree would place it closer to the bottom end. How would the best Choose Your Own Adventure book compare to the worst of Dickens’ novels? It’s a thankless task. The solution? Put it in the middle and hope no one notices. Netflix

12. '15 Million Merits' (Series 1, Episode 2, 2011): In a dystopian future world where almost every surface is a touch screen of some sort, ordinary people are forced to spend long hours riding on exercise bikes to generate energy for their world. For doing so, they earn credits, which allow them to watch TV shows, play games, skip adverts and other such things that seemed far-fetched in 2011, and now don’t. The only way out of this is to win an X-Factor style reality show, or appear in some of the even less salubrious shows available, so our hero sets himself to the task at hand. Netflix

11. 'Striking Vipers' (Series 5, Episode 1, 2019): The first show in the latest season takes us into a bizarre love triangle (or pentagon?) featuring a married couple, their erstwhile college roommate, and the characters in an online VR fighting game. It’s a weird, but fascinating premise, and one that takes on real relevance in a world in which the notion of identifying as different genres, species or even inanimate objects is becoming more and more accepted. The developing VR romance between two friends raises questions of identity, emotional repression, infidelity, ageing, parenthood, friendship and reality. Netflix

10. Crocodile (Series 4, Episode 3, 2017): 'Black Mirror' at its bleakest. Mia has just witnessed a traffic accident from her hotel room window. As the only reliable witness, an insurance company wants to use a “recaller” on her – a device which is able to read recent memories and present them as evidence in court. The problem for Mia is that immediately before the accident, she was engaged in an animated debate with a former friend who wanted to come clean about a hit and run they’d committed 15 years ago, and had killed him to settle the argument. Mia is forced on a brutal killing spree to get rid of anyone who may be able to trace her based on the insurance investigator’s movements. Netflix

9. Smithereens (Series 5, Episode 2, 2019): More of the dark stuff. Chris is a nervous wreck and has a major problem with social media giant Smithereen, though we don’t initially know why. He takes a Smithereen employee hostage and threatens to kill him unless he is allowed to speak directly to Smithereen chief Billy Bauer (Topher Grace channeling Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey). The show addresses how all-encompassing social media has become, and how it has now even run beyond the control of its creators. The final reveal isn’t the greatest in the show’s history, but Andrew Scott’s performance is a stunner, and the sense of loss at the episode’s close is palpable. Courtesy Netflix

8. Metalhead (Series 4, Episode 5, 2017): In a sense, the same criticism could be levelled at 'Metalhead' as I earlier levelled at 'Playtest': it’s not very 'Black Mirror'. Shot entirely in black and white, a group of humans in a post-apocalyptic world, led by Maxine Peake, break into a warehouse to try and find drugs for their sick companion. They are then relentless pursued by hi-tech, heavily armed robotic guard dogs who kill them off one at a time as they flee across the bleak countryside. The difference between 'Metalhead' and 'Playtest' is that while both lack the traditional 'Black Mirror' twists and technological quandaries, the pace, tension, and sheer terror invoked by 'Metalhead' mean it doesn’t need it. Courtesy Netflix

7. The Entire History of You (Series 1, Episode 3, 2011): If you have a jealous partner, you do not want to live in the world of 'The Entire History of You'. Liam and wife Ffion both have 'grains' implanted behind their ears, devices which record all your memories and allow you to playback and delete them at will. Following a chance encounter with Ffion’s ex at a dinner party, Liam becomes increasingly jealous and obsessed with the former relationship and, well, this being 'Black Mirror', things don’t end well. Courtesy Netflix

6. Nosedive (Series 3, Episode 1, 2016): Another rare light-hearted moment in the 'Black Mirror' pantheon, and another that’s disturbingly close to reality. Lacie (a brilliant Bryce Dallas Howard) lives in a world where your every single interaction with another human being is rated out of five stars on social media. These ratings affect everything from where you can live to what car you can drive, what restaurants you can eat in, and even what medical treatment you receive. Lacie is a respectable 4.2 at the outset, but her attempts to travel to her five-star-rated school friend’s wedding take on a decidedly 'Fawlty Towers' complexion and she begins to plummet. In real world news, Uber announced it may ban low-rated passengers from booking rides. Netflix

5. Hang the DJ (Series 4, Episode 4, 2017): Amy and Frank live in a highly regulated future society where romantic relationships are strictly regulated by 'The System'. The system will allocate you a partner, and how much time you are to spend with that partner – it could be an hour, it could be 10 years. You can’t break up with them before this date, and you can’t stay with them after. Through analysing data from your ongoing liaisons, The System will eventually match you up with your perfect partner on Pairing Day. The thing is, Amy and Frank love each other, and they only have 20 hours left. Netflix

4. Shut Up and Dance (Series 3, Episode 3, 2016): A hacker has accessed video of Kenny in a highly compromising position through his webcam. He receives a series of instructions through his phone to carry out a series of bizarre and increasingly criminal acts as a way of preventing the hacker from releasing the material to his family and friends. Along the way, he meets other victims of the same scam, all seemingly with one thing in common. By the time we get to the grisly final scenes, 'Black Mirror' has out-bleaked itself once again. Courtesy Netflix

3. San Junipero (Series 3, Episode 4, 2016): Brooker proves that he can do uplifting too when he puts his mind to it, with this Emmy-winning episode. In 1987, Kelly and Yorkie meet in a club in the seaside town of San Junipero. There’s an immediate attraction, but Kelly is too pushy for the prudish Yorkie and nothing happens. Yorkie successfully tracks Kelly down again in 2002 – and neither have aged. San Juipero, we slowly learn, is a simulation where the infirm and dying can exist as their younger selves, and even upload their soul permanently when they die. And after some heart-string-tugging drama, for once, our heroes 'live' happily ever after. Netflix

2. Be Right Back (Series 2, Episode 1, 2013): Pregnant Martha’s husband Ash has just died in a car crash, and she’s eventually been persuaded to try out a new technology that takes your deceased partner's data and creates an AI version of them to keep you company through your phone. Despite her initial misgivings, Martha and “Phone Ash” are getting along great, so she’s persuaded to try out the very latest add-on – building an identical, android physical form of your AI love. Naturally, it’s not straightforward. Courtesy Netflix

1. The National Anthem (Series 1, Episode 1, 2011): The very first episode of 'Black Mirror' aired in December 2011 on the UK’s Channel 4. It didn’t have the same budget and finesse of the later Netflix shows, it didn’t have the same hi-tech know-how as even the second episode a week later. In many ways, it’s probably not the best episode of 'Black Mirror ever'. But the day I watched that episode, I knew TV had changed. We didn’t know much about the forthcoming show, other than that Charlie Brooker was usually reliably brilliant. To open a brand new prime-time show with the story of a British PM being blackmailed into performing an indecent act with a farm animal on live TV, following the kidnapping of a princess was jaw-dropping. It said, “This is 'Black Mirror'. We’re here. We’re not going away. TV just changed.” No other episode, possibly of any show, will ever have that incredible impact again. Netflix