'Black Mirror' Season 4 News: Charlie Brooker Talks Writing Process, 'Weird Track Record' of Predictions Coming True
"Black Mirror" is known for its dark, satirical themes, as well as having a knack for predicting future technologies. But, creator Charlie Brooker does not rip stories out of headlines.
According to Birmingham Mail, while speaking to the Press Association, Brooker revealed their process of writing stories and how they come up with these different kinds of technologies.
"What we don't tend to do is sit down and look at the newspaper and go: 'Right, what's the 'Black Mirror' take on the refugee crisis or this new gizmo that has come out from Apple?' We don't tend to do that," he said. "I think the ideas tend to come out of unpleasant but darkly amusing 'what if' scenarios and luckily there's no shortage of those."
Brooker also acknowledged how bizarre it is that "Black Mirror" tends to foresee events or technologies that happen in the real world. "Having said all of that, we do seem to have a weird track record for predicting things that then come true," he said.
Earlier this month, the season 4 trailer and release date were revealed. Prior to that, individual trailers for all six episodes were dropped as well. Brooker had previously said that the fourth season would have "different tones," which means some of the episodes will have a more upbeat or comedic take. This was apparent with the trailers for "USS Callister," which is a colorful "Star Trek"-inspired episode, and "Hang the DJ," which focuses on a new dating app.
"ArkAngel," an episode directed by Jodie Foster, explores a new tracking technology. Foster recently shared a clip from the episode while appearing on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." The clip shows a mother bringing her daughter to a facility in order to have a chip implanted in her. She had made her decision to invest in the tracking technology after her daughter had gone missing for a while.
"Black Mirror" season 4 will be released on Dec. 29 on Netflix.
