In 2017, the fourth season of the Netflix anthology show Black Mirror featured an episode inspired by Star Trek called “USS Callister.” The highly acclaimed feature-length episode was nominated for 7 Emmys and won 4, including Outstanding Television Movie. Now Netflix has announced they are doing a sequel.
USS Callister returns
News of the “USS Callister” sequel was announced on Thursday. Netflix released a short teaser announcing season 7 will arrive in 2025 with “six new stories, but one looks a little familiar” with a graphic showing the symbol for the USS Callister.
Six new stories, but one looks a little familiar. Black Mirror returns 2025. pic.twitter.com/uJmpxEhZH4
— Netflix (@netflix) March 14, 2024
The original episode was set in a virtual world where tech CEO Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) created conscious digital clones of his employees and forced these copies to crew the eponymous USS Callister, set in the fictional world of his favorite sci-fi show. Eventually, the digital copies rebel and defeat Daly and escape into the game with the ship. On Thursday at the Next on Netflix event in London, the streamer teased the sequel (via THR) with the brief summary “Robert Daly is dead, but for the crew of the USS Callister, their problems are just beginning.”
From Black Mirror‘s “USS Callister” (Netflix)
It is unknown who will be returning from the original cast, which included Cristin Milioti and Jimmi Simpson (the voice of Dreadnok in Star Trek: Prodigy). The original episode was directed by Toby Haynes, an avowed Star Trek fan who was recently tapped by Paramount Pictures to helm a new Star Trek feature film. Haynes was nominated for a Hugo award for “USS Callister” and expressed interest in returning for a follow-up, but it isn’t known if he is attached to the new Black Mirror episode.
“USS Callister” trailer
Here’s the trailer for the original “USS Callister” from Black Mirror.
Keep up with other sci-fi news at TrekMovie.com.
Awesome! Loved that episode.
A sequel kind of goes against the entire point of that show. The last season was pretty weak, so I’m guessing this is sort of a gimmick to get create some buzz again.
I am skeptical of the sequel, but I loved the original ep.
Agreed, I don’t see the need for a sequel either…
I’ll give it a shot either way. Black Mirror is very hit or miss for me, so can’t claim to have any allegiance to it.
The original episode was arguably the best Star Trek we’ve gotten in years, imo. Kidding, but not kidding. 😉
Yup! The whole show is definitely all over the allegorical storytelling aspect.. far more than Trek has been in years.
Agree with you both, this delivered and delivered some more!
This is great news for me as I loved that episode. I came to Black Mirror late and as such I’m just about to start what was until now, the final season. Very original stories and I’ve enjoyed it considerably.
That episode is the only Black Mirror I have ever seen lol..I know the show is good it’s just not enough time in the day to watch everything but will get around to watching it at some point. And I really did like that episode. Curious how they will follow it up.
I’d recommend starting Black Mirror at Season 4 for which the first episode is USS Callister. The episodes are stand alone so you don’t need to start at S1 E1. While S1 was good it was a little too icky for my tastes especially the first episode or two. S2 and S3 are also very good but you could easily start at S4, go to S5 and S6 and then head back to the first few seasons.
I’m on the opposite side of the fence. I find the later series too tame! Some of them have something approximating a happy ending. That’s not how I like my dystopian sci-fi to end, but to each their own.
Tiger, check out “Metalhead.” A standout episode, imo.
I haven’t gotten around to watching “Callister” for some reason, but I’ll say offhand that insignia aside, as a takeoff on the Cage-era uniforms I like these better than those on SNW.
The time to have done this would have been at least 2018, now almost 10 years later? They snoozed.